A Dhaka court on Tuesday set January 5 to hold hearing on charge framing in Niko graft case against BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and others.

Judge Sheikh Hafizur Rahman of Dhaka 9th special judge court passed the order this morning at the newly built courtroom in front of Keraniganj Central Jail.

Today was fixed for holding hearing on charge framing in the case, but the prime accused Begum Khaleda Zia failed to appear before the court on health ground and made her lawyer Advocate Ziauddin Zia plead for time.

Allowing the defence plea, the court then adjourned the hearing till January 5.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case against five including Begum Khaleda Zia with Tejgaon police station on December 9, 2007, for abusing power in signing a deal with Canadian company Niko for exploring and extracting gas.

The ACC on May 5, 2008, submitted the charge-sheet against 11 people including Khaleda Zia. The ACC accused them of incurring a loss of more than Taka 13 thousand crore of state exchequer by that deal.