A Dhaka court has ordered a public notice to be published in newspapers directing British MP Tulip Siddiq, niece of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and another accused to appear before the court in a corruption case involving a flat in Gulshan.
The order was issued on Sunday by Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md. Sabbir Foyez, according to the court’s bench assistant Riaz Hossain.
The other accused in the case is former assistant legal adviser of the Capital Development Authority (RAJUK), Sardar Mosharraf Hossain.
The case was filed on April 15 last year by Mohammad Monirul Islam, an assistant director at the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) Dhaka Integrated District Office, against the British Labour Party MP.
According to the case statement, Siddiq allegedly used her influence in the transfer of a plot in Gulshan-2 and received a flat there as a bribe.
The complaint alleges that the accused, through “criminal conspiracy and abuse of power,” helped facilitate the transfer of a flat in Gulshan-2 from Eastern Housing to Tulip Siddiq as a bribe. It further claims that she accepted the flat without making any payment and later used her influence to obtain official records and approval for the property.
Two former assistant legal advisers of RAJUK Shah Md. Khasruzzaman and Sardar Mosharraf Hossain were also initially named as accused in the case.
However, in July last year, Khasruzzaman filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking to halt the investigation against him. In response, the High Court suspended the investigation for three months. Later, when the ACC moved to the chamber court, it issued a “no order,” meaning no charges can be filed against him until the matter is resolved, according to the ACC.
After completing the investigation, a charge sheet was submitted on December 11 against Tulip Siddiq and Sardar Mosharraf Hossain.
Taking the charge sheet into cognizance, the court issued arrest warrants against the two accused on February 18 as they were absconding. Later, on February 26, the court ordered the issuance of a Red Notice for Tulip Siddiq’s arrest.
Bench assistant Riaz Hossain said the court had scheduled the day to receive a report on whether the accused had been arrested. Police submitted a report stating that they had not been able to arrest them.
The court then ordered that a public notice be published in newspapers asking the accused to appear before the court and set March 29 as the next date for submitting a report.
Earlier, Tulip Siddiq was sentenced to a total of six years in prison two years each in three separate cases over alleged fraud in the allocation of plots in the Purbachal New Town project.
Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government during a mass uprising, Siddiq faced criticism after reports emerged that she had received a £700,000 flat in London as a “gift” from a developer close to Hasina and the Awami League. Amid the controversy, she resigned from her position as the UK’s City Minister in January.
