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UK Cities minister Tulip Siddiq has been named in a second investigation by Bangladeshi authorities as she resists calls from charities to resign from her anti-corruption brief.
The Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission alleged that Siddiq tried to pressure his aunt, the country’s former leader Sheikh Hasina, to allocate plots in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone to Siddiq’s mother and two children. brother
Investigators alleged that Sheikh Hasina while in office used senior officials of Dhaka’s development authority RAJUK to allocate nearly one hectare of land to herself and her two children in the Purbachal New Town Project in the capital.
“When he realized . . . while serving as a Member of the British Parliament, Ms Tulip Siddiq allegedly used her special influence and authority to pressure and influence her aunt, Ms Sheikh Hasina, to arrange similar allocations for the same project, for his mother, Ms Rehana Siddique, her sister, Ms Azmina Siddique, and her brother, Mr Radwan Mujib Siddique,” ACC said in a report published on Monday outlining the allegations. The report says that Sheikh Rehana has been allotted a plot in 2022.

The investigation is separate from the other previous probe to claims that Siddiq and other family members benefited from a $12bn deal by the Bangladesh government with Russia for a nuclear power plant. The family has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Siddiq has been a Labor MP since 2015 and is a close ally of UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Last week, Siddiq referred himself to Sir Laurie Magnus, the government’s independent adviser on ministerial standards.
“Tulip has reported itself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards to independently establish the facts on these matters,” a Siddiq spokesman said on Tuesday. “He clearly didn’t do anything wrong.”
Downing Street on Tuesday said Magnus would report “shortly”.
Sheikh Rehana — Sheikh Hasina’s only surviving sibling and a key political figure in the ousted administration — Radwan Mujib Siddique and Azmina Siddique could not immediately be reached for comment. Sheikh Hasina and her children, Sajeeb Wazed and Saima Wazed, were also not immediately available.
Sheikh Hasina’s regime fell last summer after a protest led by students that was initially met with violent repression by the security forces, which led to the death of hundreds of civilians.

The former Bangladesh leader last month denied he had ordered security forces to use lethal force against protesters and claimed the allegations against him were “false propaganda”.
His son Sajeeb Wazed last month dismissed the investigation into the nuclear power plant, telling Reuters that “it is not possible to get billions from a $10 billion project (the nuclear deal) . . none of us have seen that kind of money”.
Siddiq has faced calls from the UK’s opposition Conservative party to resign from his post at the Treasury, while anti-corruption charities say his current role is untenable.
The UK Anti-Corruption Coalition – which includes groups such as Oxfam, Transparency International and Spotlight on Corruption – said in a statement on Monday that Siddiq should hand over responsibilities for combating economic crime, money laundering money and illegal finance of another government minister.
Siddiq currently has a “serious conflict of interest” due to direct family ties to an ousted regime that could be investigated by UK authorities, the coalition said.
“The UK has a historic responsibility to support the new interim government in Bangladesh, to ensure a democratic transition, and to recover stolen property, particularly as some of the property may hidden in the UK itself,” the coalition added.
Starmer’s spokesman said on Monday that the prime minister retained “full confidence” in Siddiq.






