Dhaka:

Bangladesh’s anti-graft 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 Monday.

Hasina, 77, fled a revolution in August 2024 to neighbouring India, where she has defied extradition requests from Bangladesh to face charges including mass murder.

The cases are linked to an alleged large-scale land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the densely populated capital Dhaka.

“Sheikh Hasina, in collaboration with some officials, allocated plots for herself and her family members,” Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) director general Akhter Hossain told reporters.

Hossain said those named in the case also include Hasina’s niece, British anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq. She has insisted she has done nothing wrong.

Hasina’s daughter Saima Wazed, the World Health Organization’s South East Asia chief, is also listed. There was no immediate response from Wazed.

“The ACC investigation team has obtained the necessary documents and found sufficient evidence to file the cases,” Hossain told AFP.

“They will include relevant details, such as property acquisitions while conducting further investigations.”

Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy is also named, as well as Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana, Siddiq’s mother.

Siddiq referred herself this month to the standards adviser of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The referral came after British newspapers the Sunday Times and Financial Times reported that she had lived in properties linked to Hasina’s administration.

Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission also launched a probe in December into the alleged embezzlement by Hasina’s family of $5 billion connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant.

The kickback allegations relate to the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear plant, which was bankrolled by Moscow with a 90 percent loan.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

FILE- Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks during a press conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Jan. 6, 2014. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)
| Photo Credit: AP

Bangladesh’s deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and 69 others were booked on Monday (September 23, 2024) over the death of a garment worker during the quota reform protests in Dhaka’s Kafrul area on August 5.

Ms. Hasina, 76, who resigned and fled to India on August 5, is now facing 194 cases, including 173 for murders, 11 for crimes against humanity and genocide, three for abduction, six for attempted murder, and one for an attack on a Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) procession, The Daily Star newspaper reported.

The victim’s wife filed the case against Ms. Hasina and others with the Court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md. Saiful Islam. After the hearing, the magistrate asked the Police Bureau of Investigation to submit a report following an investigation.

In her complaint, she said her husband, Md. Fazlu was shot in front of the police lines at Mirpur-14 on the morning of August 5. Later, he was rushed to Max Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead, the report said.

Yesterday (September 22, 2024), two more cases were filed against Ms. Hasina and several others over the deaths of a 14-year-old madrasa student at Jatrabari on July 18 and 12-year-old Rakib Hasan at Mohammadpur on July 19.