Tulip sued by ACC for 'illegal possession of flat' in Gulshan
Ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s niece and former UK city minister Tulip Siddiq and two others have been sued by the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) on charges of possessing a flat at Eastern Housing Limited in the capital’s Gulshan unlawfully.
As a plaintiff, Monirul Islam, ACC assistant director at the commission’s integrated district office in Dhaka, filed the case today, Tuesday.
ACC assistant director Md Akter Hossain disclosed the development while speaking to newspersons at the ACC head office in Segunbagicha of the capital.
Apart from Tulip Siddiq, RAJUK legal adviser Shah Md Khasruzzaman and former assistant legal adviser-1 Sardar Mosharraf Hossain have been made accused in the case, he added.
The accused, in collusion with one another, abused their power and unlawfully took possession of a flat belonging to Eastern Housing Limited in Gulshan-2 (Flat No. B/201, House No. 5A and 5B [old], currently 113 and 11B [new], Road No. 71) without making any payment. They later registered the property in their names.
The ACC said the building was constructed on leased government land through forgery and deceit. Tulip Siddiq unlawfully took possession of a flat in that building.
A seven-member-committee headed by ACC deputy director Md Monirul Islam was formed to investigate the matter.
The other members of the committee are – ACC deputy directors Afnan Jannat Keya, Mubashwira Atiya Toma, SM Rashedul Hasan, AKM Mortuza Ali Sagor, Mohammad Monirul Islam and deputy director Md Abdullah Al Mamun.
Earlier on 10 March, the ACC submitted separate charge sheets against Sheikh Hasina, Sheikh Rehana, former state minister Sharif Ahmed, personal secretary of formal prime minister Salauddin and 14 officials from the housing and public works ministry on allegations of illegally allocating six plots on 60 kathas of land in Purbachal. The court took the charge sheets into cognisance and issued arrest warrants against the accused.
Following that, Tulip Siddiq said in response to a query from a newsperson on Monday that none of the Bangladeshi authorities contacted her. They have been conducting a media trial against her all along.
She also claimed her lawyers also wrote to the concerned Bangladeshi authorities. However, they never did get any response.
The former UK city minister said, “I am sure you (journalists) understand the fact that I cannot take this politically motivated propaganda too seriously. It is being done only to harass me. There is no such proof that I have done something wrong.”
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was toppled from power amid the July uprising. After that the ACC began investigations into the allegations of corruption during the Awami League regime on a large scale.
Tulip Siddiq is a MP from the Hampstead and Highgate constituency in London. She resigned from the post of the city minister last January following the start of the investigations against her in Bangladesh.