City Minister Tulip Siddique has been appointed in Bangladesh’s second corruption probe

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UK City Financial Secretary Tulip Siddique has been named in a second investigation by authorities in Bangladesh, as she faces calls from charities to resign from her anti-corruption diary.

The Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission alleged that Siddiq tried to pressure her aunt, the country’s former leader Sheikh Hasina, to allocate plots of land in Dhaka’s diplomatic area to Siddiq’s mother and two brothers.

Investigators alleged that Sheikh Hasina, while in office, used senior Dhaka Development Authority (DDA) officials in Rajuk to allocate nearly one acre of land to her and her two children in the capital’s Purbachal New Town project.

“When I realised… Ms. Tulip Siddiq, while serving as a Member of the British Parliament, had allegedly used her own influence and power to pressure her aunt, Ms. Sheikh Hasina, to arrange similar allocations in the same project for her mother, Ms. Rehana Siddique, her sister, Ms. Azmna Siddique, and her brother, Mr. Rizwan. Mujib Siddiq.” The report claimed that a plot of land was allocated to Sheikh Rehana in 2022.

The investigation is separate from investigated earlier In allegations that Siddiq and several other family members benefited from the Bangladesh government’s $12 billion deal with Russia to set up a nuclear power plant. The family denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

Friend has been a Labor MP since 2015 and is a close ally of UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Last week, Siddiq referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus, the government’s independent adviser on ministerial standards.

A spokesperson for Friend said on Tuesday: “Tulip has self-reported to the Independent Advisor on Ministerial Standards to independently determine the facts on these matters.” “She is clear she did nothing wrong.”

Downing Street said on Tuesday that Magnus would report “soon”.

Sheikh Rehana – the only living brother of Sheikh Hasina and a key political figure in the ousted administration – Rizwan Mujib Siddiq and Azmana Siddiq could not immediately be reached for comment. It was not immediately possible to contact Sheikh Hasina and her two children, Sajeeb Wajid and Saima Wajid.

It was Sheikh Hasina’s regime She ousted him last summer Following a student-led protest that was initially met with violent repression by security forces, leading to the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

The former Bangladesh president denied last month that she had ordered security forces to use lethal force against protesters, and claimed that the allegations against her were “false propaganda.”

Her son, Sajib Wajid, refused last month to investigate the nuclear power plant, telling Reuters that “it is not possible to withdraw billions from a $10 billion project (the nuclear agreement). . . “None of us have ever seen this kind of money.”

Siddiqa has faced calls from the UK’s opposition Conservative Party to resign from her position at the Treasury, while anti-corruption charities have said her current role is untenable.

The UK Anti-Corruption Alliance – which includes groups such as Oxfam, Transparency International and Spotlight on Corruption – said in a statement on Monday that Friend should hand over responsibilities for combating economic crime, money laundering and illicit finance to another government minister.

The coalition said that Al-Siddiq currently suffers from a “serious conflict of interest” due to his direct family ties to the ousted regime, which the British authorities may investigate.

The coalition added, “The United Kingdom bears a historic responsibility to support the new interim government in Bangladesh, to ensure the democratic transition, and to recover stolen assets, not least because some of these assets may be hidden in the United Kingdom itself.”

Starmer’s spokesman said on Monday that the Prime Minister retained “full confidence” in Siddiq.