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Bangladesh anti-corruption authorities have accused the former British Minister of the Tulip Siddiq of using a false notary in a transfer of ownership to his sister, as part of an investigation into the alleged illegal allocation of public land.
The Bangladesh anti -corruption commission claims that Siddiq – the niece of the former Prime Minister of the country, Sheikh Hasina – has used its political influence to guarantee government plots in the new Dacca Purbachal city project for itself and its family, benefiting from the illegal public allocation.
The agency also alleges that she used a false notary to transfer a separate apartment to her sister, according to a charging document published Thursday by the agency.
The ACC will now submit its accusations against Siddiq to the Court, which must approve before being able to bring the case to prosecution, in a process widely considered as a formality.
Siddiq resigned from his post of British government in January after faced political pressures following allegations reported by the Financial Times that she had benefited from properties related to the Awami League, the party led by her aunt, Sheikh Hasina. She has always denied any reprehensible act.
The Anti-Corruption Commission, which has powers to continue as well as investigate corruption cases, said that they have brought charges against several members of the Hasina family, notably Siddiq, as part of a broader investigation into allegations of corruption involving state resources.
The agency claims that Hasina and her relatives have obtained government lands in violation of eligibility rules, bypassing standard allocation procedures.
“This is only the tip of an iceberg,” said the agency president, Dr. Mohammad Abdul Momen, at the FT. “There are many more allegations under investigation with the ACC which will speak of the colossal size of the corruption of the fallen Prime Minister and its immediate members of the family.”
The Hasina 15 -year rule as Prime Minister of Bangladesh, marked with increasing authoritarianism, ended last August in the middle of mass demonstrations. Since then, a series of allegations involving corruption, land transactions and financial misconduct involving Hasina’s family have emerged,
The Anti-Corruption Commission maintains that 60 katha (about one ACRE) of government lands in the Purbachal New Town project, a major residential development on the outskirts of Dacca, was illegally allocated to Hasina, to its children and to close family members.
Investigators allegedly alleged that Siddiq ownership of another property in Dacca should have tackled it to receive a plot as part of the land allocation program, but that it and family members have manipulated regulations to access the main real estate.
This allowed them to bypass public lotteries and the eligibility criteria designed to prevent politically connected individuals from obtaining land intended for civil servants.
As part of its wider survey, ACC also claims that Siddiq used a fraudulent notary document to transfer the property of an apartment to the Gulshan Dacca region to its sister, Azmina Siddiq.
The lawyer for the Supreme Court Gazi Sirazul Islam, whose seal appears on the document, denied the notarization, according to the accusation fire. While the seal bore its name, he said, the signature did not correspond to its own.
Islam also told investigators that it only notes the documents in its law of law and had no prior knowledge with Tulip or Azmina Siddiq.
The disputed document, a Heba act – an Islamic legal instrument to offer property – dates back to 2015, when Siddiq was a Labor deputy but before it was Minister of the Government. The ACC relieves that notary fraud was part of an effort to obscure the real property of the property.
A close ally of the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Siddiq, said in January that remaining in his role – which included responsibility for fighting corruption – would be a distraction of the government.
Siddiq did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
