Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission has filed cases against ousted leader Sheikh Hasina and her family, including a British government minister and a senior United Nations official, its chief said on Monday.
Hasina, 77, fled the revolution in August 2024 to neighboring India, where she has rejected extradition requests from Bangladesh to face charges including mass murder.
The cases relate to alleged large-scale land grabbing of lucrative plots in a densely populated suburb of the capital Dhaka.
“Sheikh Hasina, in connivance with some officials, allotted plots to herself and her family members,” Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Director General Akhtar Hussain told reporters.
Hussain said those named in the case also include Hasina’s niece, British anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiqui. He has insisted that he has done nothing wrong.
World Health Organization Southeast Asia chief Hasina’s daughter Saima Wajed is also listed. There was no immediate reaction from Wajed.
“The ACC investigation team has obtained the necessary documents and found enough evidence to register a case,” Hussain told AFP.
“They will include relevant details such as property acquisition while investigating further.”
Haseena’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy is also named, as is Haseena’s sister Sheikh Rehana, Siddiq’s mother.
Siddiq this month referred himself to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as a standards adviser.
The referral came after British newspapers Sunday Times and Financial Times reported that she was living in properties linked to Hasina’s administration.
Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission also in December launched a probe into alleged embezzlement by Hasina’s family of $5 billion linked to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant.
The bribery charges relate to the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear plant, which Moscow financed 90 percent with loans.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
