The Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday decided to conduct an inquiry against six people, including now ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana, over allegations of corruption in the allotment of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha plots in Purbachal.
This is the third inquiry by the commission against Sheikh Hasina over corruption allegations since the fall of her regime, leading her to flee to India on August 5 amid a student-led mass uprising.
The anti-graft agency also filed three cases against former state minister for power and energy Nasrul Hamid and his family members on the charges of amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 64 crore and suspicious transactions of over Tk 3,000 crore in their bank accounts.
It took the decision for a probe against Sheikh Hasina聽 and five others at a meeting held by commission chairman Mohammad Abdul Momen at its Segun Bagicha headquarters in Dhaka city, said agency director general (prevention) Md Akter Hossain.
The four others to be probed are Hasina鈥檚 son Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy, her daughter Saima Wazed Putul, Rehana鈥檚 son Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby, and her youngest daughter Azmina Siddiq.
According to the allegations, Sheikh Hasina, in collusion with top officials of Rajuk, facilitated the allocation of six plots鈥攅ach is 10 katha in size鈥攊n her and family members鈥� names through irregularities and corruption during her prime minister鈥檚 tenure.
These six plots are situated on Road 203 in the diplomatic zone of Sector 27 of the Purbachal New Town project, as per the allegations.
Rajuk issued an allotment letter on August 3, 2022, allotting a 10-katha plot to Sheikh Hasina (plot number 009), while it allotted two plots to Sajeeb Wazed (plot number 015) and Saima Wazed (plot number 017).聽
Sajeeb鈥檚 allotment letter was issued on October 24, 2022, while Sayma鈥檚 allotment letter was issued on November 2, the same year.
A 10-katha plot (plot number 013) was also allocated to Sheikh Rehana. The same size plots were also allotted in the names of his son Radwan Mujib (plot number 011) and daughter Azmina Siddiq (plot number 019).
Earlier in October, the High Court also formed a three-member committee to investigate into the allegations in response to a writ file after media reports surfaced about irregularities committed in allocating Purbachal plots to the six members of Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 family.
The High Court also asked the committee to investigate allegations of irregularities in the allocation of plots by Rajuk during the past 15 years of the Awami League regime from 2009 to 2024.
On December 17, the ACC decided to conduct an inquiry against Sheikh Hasina, Sajeeb Wazed, Sheikh Rehana, and Tulip Siddique over allegations of embezzlement and corruption involving Tk 80,000 crore in nine mega projects.
As a part of the inquiry, the commission sent a letter to the office of the chief adviser on Tuesday, seeking information related to embezzlement of Tk 21,000 crore in eight special priority projects, including Ashrayan, BEZA, and BEPZA projects.
The team will also probe allegations of corruption worth Tk 59,000 crore in the Rooppur nuclear power plant project.
Apart from this, the anti-corruption agency, on December 22, also decided on an inquiry against Sheikh Hasina and her son Sajeeb Wazed over the allegations of laundering $300 million.
As part of the inquiry, the commission sent letters to various offices to collect documents related to offshore banking accounts and identity cards in the names of Hasina and her family members.
The ACC, meanwhile, filed three separate cases against Nasrul Hamid Bipu, his wife, and his son on the charges of amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 64 crore.
The cases were filed with its integrated district office in Dhaka-1, said commission director general Akter Hossain, while talking to journalists at the commission鈥檚 headquarters in Dhaka on Thursday.
Of them, Nasrul was sued on the charges of amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 36.37 crore and unusual transactions worth Tk 3,181 crore in his 98 bank accounts.
Another case was filed against his son Zarif Hamid for amassing illegal assets worth Tk 20.87 crore and suspicious transactions of Tk 13 crore in his 13 bank accounts.
Apart from this, Nasrul鈥檚 wife, Seema Hamid, has also been sued on the charges of accumulating illegal wealth worth Tk 6.94 crore and suspicious transactions of Tk 24 crore in her 20 bank accounts.
On August 22, the anti-corruption commission started an inquiry against Nasrul Hamid, also a former lawmaker from the Dhaka-3 constituency, who went into hiding since the fall of the Awami League regime.
