British MP Tulip Siddiq faces graft charges for accepting Gulshan flat as 'bribe'

The anti-graft agency says the case is already being processed

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is preparing to initiate a graft case against Tulip Siddiq, a former junior minister in the UK and niece of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, over allegations of unlawfully receiving a flat from Eastern Housing Limited in Dhaka’s Gulshan area.

ACC Director General Akhtar Hossain said on Tuesday that the case will be filed with the commission’s Dhaka Integrated District Office.

Assistant Director Monirul Islam is expected to submit the case, which is currently being processed.

Alongside Tulip, the case will also name two former RAJUK assistant legal advisors, Shah Md Khosruzzaman and Sardar Mosharraf Hossain, as co-accused.

The accused colluded in a “criminal conspiracy, corruption, misconduct and abuse of power” to unlawfully occupy an Eastern Housing Ltd flat in Gulshan without paying any money, according to the ACC. The flat was later registered in Tulip's name.

The anti-graft watchdog intends to bring charges against them under sections 120(B), 409, 161-165(A), 109 of the Penal Code and section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.

Earlier, the ACC accused Tulip and issued an arrest warrant against her in cases related to "abuse of power" involving the allocation of six 0.2-acre plots in Dhaka’s Purbachal New Town Project.

Her lawyer dismissed the ACC’s allegations against her as “entirely false” and politically motivated.

THE CHARGES

The ACC said in 1963, the then chief justice Imam Hossain Choudhury was allotted a plot measuring over 1 bigha in Gulshan (plot No. 11A and 11B at present).

Under the government's 99-year lease agreement, any transfer or sub-sale of the plot was prohibited.

In 1973, however, Imam transferred the plot to Md Mojibur Rahman Bhuiyan by public order. Mojibur then subdivided the plot and sold it to his wife Shamsun Nahar and sister-in-law Zarin Begum.

Later Shamsun Nahar sold the plot to the daughters of Jahurul Islam, the founding chairman of Eastern Housing, Naeema Islam and Kanita Islam. The two sisters gave their father Jahurul power of attorney to oversee construction on the site.

Jahurul then split up the plot in two and started work on a six-storey building, but he died before it was completed. Later Naeema and Kanita nominated their brother Manjurul Islam to pass the power of attorney, but it was cancelled due to an internal family dispute.

Manjurul Islam then took legal steps while the sisters also filed a case to get their ownership of the building back. During the litigation, the sisters appealed to RAJUK seeking a prohibition on the transfer of flats.

According to the ACC, the then law advisors of RAJUK authorised the “unlawful” transfer of flats to Eastern Housing twice using “false information”, though the company was not the owner of the land.

The ACC alleged the public administrator was appointed "with irregularity by abusing power" without complying with the conditions, and the plot was sold, divided, and transferred.

RAJUK summoned both parties in response to the application for the appointment of the chairman of Eastern Housing as an agent, but they failed to appear, and the agent was never approved, it said.

The case alleges that the plot was split into two, a building was erected on it, and 36 flats were sold or transferred. However, the transfer of ownership of Eastern Housing from "an individual person" to a legal person was "questionable", according to the ACC.

This is where Tulip enters the scene as the anti-graft watchdog says she facilitated the dividing and transferring of the 36 flats by breaching the rules.

Tulip received a flat “for free as an illegal gratuity” in exchange for the arrangement with Eastern Housing, ACC alleged citing an Eastern Housing letter as “evidence of unlawfully taking advantage”.

Tulip was fifth on the list among the flat owners sent to RAJUK by Eastern Housing. The ACC considered it “proof of Tulip illicitly using influence”.

Citing an Eastern Housing letter to the city corporation, the ACC said Tulip has been occupying the flat since May 19, 2001, when Hasina was in power, and the UK MP has been paying holding tax since.

According to ACC documents, the total cost price of the plot stood at around 4.52 million. The company was shown to have paid only Tk 200,000 out of the garage’s price of Tk 600,000. But no receipt for the payment of Tk 200,000 was found. In other words, Tulip obtained a “free registry document” for the flat.