Ershad acquitted in telephone graft case............

A Dhaka court has acquitted former president HM Ershad and three others of graft charges in a case involving the setting up of digital telephone lines during his administration.

"I have finally received justice from the court after these long years," Ershad told us after Monday's verdict.

Dhaka divisional special judge Md Golam Mortuza's verdict came 16 years after the case was first filed.

Ershad, MP and Jatiya Party chairman, is a partner of the ruling Awami League under the Grand Alliance coalition. He won a total of three seats in the Dec 29 general election.

The now defunct Bureau of Anticorruption filed the case in 1992.

Co-accused in the case were former telecommunications minister Kazi Firoz Rashid, former Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board chairman Maksud Ali Khan, BTTB officials Shamsul Islam and Anwarul Kader, and businessman Majid Chowdhury.

Rashid was later dropped from the chargesheet in 1995. Khan died while the case was still in trial.

The other three were also acquitted on Monday.

According to the case details, Ershad's administration decided to set up digital telephone lines in 89 upazilas with loan assistance from Finland.

The accused were alleged to have made massive profits from the scheme, leaving the state burdened with the Tk 28.62 crore loan with interest.

Some 15 witnesses testified in the trial.