Tulip Siddiq has been named in a second corruption investigation in Bangladesh over the alleged procurement of land for her family under her aunt’s former regime.
Authorities in Dhaka said that Siddiq, Labour’s anti-corruption minister, was among more than a dozen people being investigated over the allocation of plots of land in the diplomatic zone of the capital.
Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) claims that Siddiq, the economic secretary to the Treasury and City minister, “reportedly used her influence and special powers” to pressure Sheikh Hasina, the ousted former prime minister, to allocate land to family members.
• Tulip Siddiq resigns as Treasury minister
Siddiq is understood to deny all claims and her backers have pointed out that no evidence was presented.
However, it increases the pressure on Siddiq, 42, who had already been named in a separate ACC investigation for allegedly brokering and benefiting from a deal with Russia in 2013 over a nuclear power plant. Sources close to the minister have described those allegations as “trumped up” by political rivals of her aunt.
On Tuesday morning Dan Jarvis, the security minister, said Siddiq did not need to resign and was “getting on with doing her job” as anti-corruption minister while an investigation takes place into her conduct.
“There is now an independent process where [the government’s ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus] is looking to establish the facts of this case and he will make a judgment,” he said.
Siddiq referred herself to Magnus, the independent adviser on ministerial standards, after revelations that she had lived in London properties with links to Hasina, who fled to India from Bangladesh after mass protests in August.
Hasina, who had ruled since 2009, is accused of corruption including land grabs in Dhaka and embezzlement of up to £3.9 billion linked to the Russia project.
The Sunday Times revealed at the weekend that Labour Party posters and other political literature produced by Siddiq were found at Hasina’s ransacked former residence.
Siddiq had previously sought to distance herself from her aunt’s former regime in Dhaka and in 2017 said they “never” spoke about politics.
Yesterday, the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition called on Siddiq to hand over responsibilities for countering economic crime, money laundering and illicit finance to another government minister. It said that she had “serious conflict of interests” given she was in charge of the UK’s framework on money laundering regulations and economic crime enforcement, while also having direct family ties to a deposed regime that was to be investigated under that framework.
It came after the ACC announced a new case against Siddiq and others over the Hasina regime’s allocation of plots of land in Dhaka.
A statement from Muhammad Salahuddin, deputy director of the commission, cited information from “various sources”. He claimed Siddiq became aware that her aunt was using her authority to allocate plots of 10 katha, or 7,200 sq ft, from a scheme called the Purbachal New Town Project.
Salahuddin states that Siddiq “reportedly used her influence and special powers to pressure and exert influence on her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, to arrange similar allocations of plots in the same project” in the names of family members.
He claimed that Hasina influenced officials of the Ministry of Housing and Public Works to allocate plots for “personal and third-party gain” in 2022.
Siddiq, along with family members, is accused of using her influence relating to three plots of land totalling 30 katha. The land is described as being located in the diplomatic zone of Sector 27.
She denies the claims and has also denied any wrongdoing in the ACC’s first investigation, into claims that she received embezzled funds from the artificial inflation of construction costs for the power plant, which was mainly funded by Russia. The claims have been made by a political rival of Hasina.
A spokesman for Siddiq said: “Tulip has self-reported to the independent adviser on ministerial standards to independently establish the facts on these matters. She is clear that she has done nothing wrong. It would be inappropriate to comment further while that process is ongoing.”
