Tulip seeks meeting with CA Yunus
Published: 08 June 2025, 6:44:48
Former UK City Minister and niece of ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Tulip Siddiq, has requested a meeting with Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus to clear up what she described as a “misunderstanding” regarding corruption allegations that led to her resignation from the UK government, The Guardian reported.
In a letter to Chief Adviser Yunus ahead of his upcoming visit to London, Tulip expressed her hope that a discussion might clarify her position amid ongoing investigations launched by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in Dhaka.
According to the report, Tulip wrote: “I hope a meeting might help clear up the misunderstanding perpetuated by the anti-corruption committee in Dhaka that I have questions to answer in relation to my mother’s sister, the former prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina.”
Tulip, who has served as a Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate since 2015, stressed that she is a UK citizen with no property or business interests in Bangladesh.
“The country is dear to my heart but it is not the country where I was born, live in or have built my career in,” she added. Tulip also complained that the ACC had refused to engage with her legal team in London, instead sending correspondence to an incorrect address in Dhaka.
“Every move in this fantasy investigation is briefed to the media, and yet no engagement was facilitated with my legal team,” she wrote. “I know you’ll appreciate how important it is to ensure those reports do not become a distraction from the critical work of doing my very best for my constituents and my country.”
Tulip Siddiq is currently under investigation by the ACC on several fronts. She is accused of benefiting from the Rooppur nuclear power plant deal with Russia, influencing Sheikh Hasina in the alleged improper allocation of Rajuk land to family members, and laundering money.
On 17 December 2024, the ACC launched an inquiry into allegations that Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, her sister Sheikh Rehana, niece Tulip, and other family members embezzled Tk 80,000 crore from various development projects during the Awami League regime.
On 13 January 2025, Tulip and her relatives were sued by the ACC for allegedly abusing power to acquire government plots in Purbachal New Town Project.
Further, on 15 January, the ACC opened another probe into corruption, abuse of power, illegal land acquisition, money laundering, and the accumulation of illicit wealth both in Bangladesh and abroad by Tulip and her relatives.
The ACC has also sought cooperation from 10-12 countries as part of its probe into money laundering allegations.
On 15 April, a case was filed against Tulip for allegedly accepting an unpaid-for flat in Dhaka’s Gulshan area.
Most recently, on 15 May, ACC Chairman Md Abdul Momen stated that the agency would request Interpol’s assistance to bring Tulip to Bangladesh if traditional means of summoning her failed.
The 42-year-old UK politician resigned from her City Minister post on 14 January, after an ethics review was launched over her alleged involvement in receiving and using properties linked to the ousted Hasina regime.
