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Bangladesh added new allegations in its corruption probe of ousted former leader Sheikh Hasina and put pressure on India to extradite her to face charges in the country, a move that could further strain relations between the two South Asian nations.
The Anti-Corruption Commission said Thursday it will investigate Hasina and five other family members for allegedly misappropriating government land in Purbachal, a sprawling residential area that was planned on the outskirts of Dhaka.
The former leader and her family are already being investigated by the agency for allegedly embezzling $5 billion in the Rooppur nuclear power plant, which is being built by Russia’s state-owned Rosatom. The allegations include her son Sajeeb Wazed and her niece Tulip Siddiq, UK City minister, who has denied any involvement.
Hasina resigned as prime minister in August and fled Bangladesh for New Delhi under pressure from millions of protesters who had taken to the streets for weeks to demand she step down. The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal issued an arrest warrant against her in October and Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, this week sent a formal request to India to return the exiled leader to Bangladesh to face the judicial process.
A spokesperson from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said Monday it received an extradition request, but didn’t offer any comment on the matter. Hasina has been a close ally of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has backed her despite international concerns about human rights abuses and political repression under her 15-year rule.
The relations between the two countries have been acrimonious since August. While Dhaka wants New Delhi to return Hasina, Indian officials and news outlets accuse Yunus’s government of failing to protect Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. A top Indian diplomat visited Dhaka recently to defuse tensions, but that may not be enough to rebuild trust.
“Cheap rhetoric, especially by the Indian media, is not really helping at this moment,” said Selim Raihan, executive director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modelling, a Dhaka-based research organization. “For the greater interest of this region, the two countries need to be objective at this moment.”
Corruption Charges
In the new corruption allegations, Hasina and her family members are accused of “secretly and illegally” acquiring six plots with the help of some officials of the city development authority, Akhtar Hossain, the director general of the Anti-Corruption Commission, told reporters on Thursday. The city development authority didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Rooppur nuclear power project, which is under scrutiny since Hasina’s fall, is a cornerstone of Bangladesh’s energy ambitions.
Reports from various sources suggest that the project has been plagued by “questionable procurement practices related to the overpriced construction” of the entire plant, the anti-graft panel said this week.
In a statement on Friday, Rosatom said that while it is “not in a position to disclose financial details related to the project,” the nuclear plant is “progressing, with key milestones achieved this year.”
Hasina’s son Wazed denied the allegations, according to a post on social media platform X earlier this week. “The corruption allegations made against my family and I are completely bogus,” he wrote. “None of us has ever seen the amounts of money that are being claimed.”
Hasina has so far not addressed the corruption charges, but in a post on X this week, she said that “communal harmony is at risk” in Bangladesh, adding that it is “imperative that we safeguard our nation from these divisive forces by building a humane society.”
--With assistance from Swati Gupta.
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