Online Desk  :   The UK Labour Party Minister Tulip Siddi is being investigated over claims she and members of her family took bribes of up to £4 billion. Tulip Siddiq – who is responsible for stamping out corruption in Britain’s financial sector – is being investigated for the alleged embezzlement linked to a nuclear power plant deal in her native Bangladesh, according to a report by UK based Daily Mail. According to the report, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) launched the probe into Tulip Siddiq, her UK-based mother Sheikh Rehana Siddiq, and her aunt, Sheikh Hasina Wazed – the ousted former prime minister of Bangladesh who ruled the country with an iron fist for more than 15 years.

Hasina fled Bangladesh to India in August with Rehana at her side after weeks of violent protests in which security forces killed hundreds of civilians, it reads. The investigation was launched after an order from the country’s High Court, which heard claims that Tulip Siddiq may have helped to ‘broker’ the nuclear deal, worth £10 billion in total. The power plant was built by a Russian state-backed company called Rosatom, and the deal was signed inside the Kremlin back in 2013 by Hasina and Vladimir Putin in the presence of Tulip Siddiq, who was then a Labour councillor.

The ACC is also probing other members of Tulip’s family, including her maternal cousin, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who lives in the US, and her paternal uncle Tariq Siddiq, who is believed to be hiding in Bangladesh. They were named in the court papers. An ACC official said, “The commission is committed to ensuring transparency and accountability, irrespective of the stature of those involved.” Tulip declined to comment, but a source close to her said the allegations, which first emerged on an American website, were ‘spurious’.

Syed Faruk, the UK general-secretary of Hasina’s Awami League party and a family friend of Tulip, said, “These stories are fabricated. These are 100 per cent politically motivated attacks against the Hasina family by the current government. They are attacking Tulip because she is the niece of our honourable prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.” The bribes probe is the latest controversy surrounding Tulip Siddiq since she became City minister in July. Within weeks, she was investigated by Parliamentary Standards after The Mail on Sunday revealed she did not declare rental income for a London property for almost 14 months.

Parliamentary rules require members to declare such incomes within 28 days. The Minister – whose official title is Economic Secretary to the Treasury – apologised and was cleared by the commissioner who accepted the mistake was ‘inadvertent’. In August, the same newspaper revealed how Tulip Siddiq moved into a £2 million five-bedroom house two years ago, which she rented from a political ally of her then-PM aunt.

The latest probe into Tulip Siddiq and her family comes after Bobby Hajjaj, a Bangladeshi opposition politician, filed a High Court petition in September. It was made in response to various articles in the Bangladeshi media, quoted in the court papers, that alleged Tulip and her family took bribes in the nuclear deal. The deal to build the Rooppur nuclear power plant in Ishwardi Upazila, 128 miles north-west of the capital Dhaka, was signed between Hasina and Putin in 2013 in a grand ceremony in the Kremlin where Tulip, her mother Rehana, 69, and the minister’s younger sister, Azmina, 34, were present.

A beaming Tulip Siddiq and her family even posed for photos with the Russian leader afterwards. The Bangladeshi media reports were triggered by an article on a US-based news website called Global Defense Corp, which detailed how the £4 billion was siphoned off by Tulip and her family members, the writ claims. The writ adds, ‘The respondent No 13 [Tulip] is a British Member of Parliament and the niece of the respondent No 10 [Hasina]. ‘She was instrumental in managing the affairs and co-ordinating meetings with Russian government officials regarding the Rooppur nuclear power plant project.’

The documents further allege that 90 per cent of the £10 billion cost of the power plant was met by a loan from the Kremlin to the Hasina government, but £4 billion was embezzled by the Hasina family ‘in collusion with Russian officials’, through Malaysian banks. The documents say, ‘It is alleged that the respondent No 13 [Tulip] along with respondent No 10 [Hasina] and other family members, received 30 per cent of the embezzled funds in exchange for their mediation.’ The papers claim that up to £709 million was siphoned out of Bangladesh through a ‘fake’ company called Prachhaya Ltd ‘to different countries including the United Kingdom’. Hasina’s rule was characterised by human rights violations, extra-judicial killings and disappearances of political opponents, with groups such as Amnesty highlighting the abuses in their reports.

A Bangladeshi court issued an arrest warrant for her, and her son Sajeeb Wazed said last month his mother was ready to face trial and ‘has done nothing wrong’. But since Hasina was ousted, various court papers have been lodged citing her and her family members over the murders as well as other corruption issues. Tulip Siddiq has in the past praised her aunt as a ‘role model’, but has not publicly commented on her ousting in August. However, the Treasury minister’s connections with her aunt’s hardline political party, the Awami League, go back more than a decade, as she once worked as its British spokesman.

Joe Robertson, the Tory MP for Isle of Wight East, said, ‘It is clear that there are serious questions that demand answers – what is the minister’s involvement? What exactly is the nature of these allegations, and how can she possibly continue in post while under such a serious investigation?’ The Treasury, Labour Party and Tulip declined to comment, but a source said she had not been contacted about the matter. Rosatom could also not be contacted. But it has said previously, ‘Rosatom rejects the provocative news published and circulated in the media regarding unethical financial transactions in the Rooppur nuclear power plant project. ‘We are committed to transparent working practices, strict anti-corruption policies, and openness in all procurement processes. ‘We view the false information published and circulated in the media as an attempt to discredit the project, which is vital for addressing Bangladesh’s electricity shortage.’

City minister Tulip Siddiq faces fresh questions after videos emerged of her with an official delegation at the signing of a billion-dollar arms deal and a nuclear power plant project with Vladimir Putin. The footage shows Tulip at the Kremlin as part of an entourage led by her aunt Sheikh Hasina Wazed and appears to contradict previous claims that it was a ‘family’ occasion. It comes nine years after The Mail on Sunday revealed a smiling Tulip had been photographed at the 2013 event alongside Putin and her aunt, who was Bangladesh’s then prime minister.

At the time, Labour insisted that Tulip – then a parliamentary candidate – had been ‘totally separate from any official delegation but was invited to an event with her family’. But the videos reveal that the ‘family event’ was an official ceremony inside the Kremlin. They show Putin and Hasina sitting at an ornate desk with Russian and Bangladeshi flags draped on the wall behind them. Both leaders were filmed delivering speeches praising each other’s countries, before signing a £1 billion arms deal.

The controversial Rooppur nuclear power plant deal, which is now being investigated in Bangladesh over claims that Tulip and members of her family took bribes worth £4 billion, was also signed at the ceremony. The family photo with Putin took place after the signings in the same room. Meanwhile, a second video has emerged from the three-day Moscow visit showing Hasina receiving a guard of honour as she lays a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior.

It also features Tulip, 41, and her sister Azmina, 34, walking behind their aunt alongside the Bangladeshi delegation. A Labour spokesman said, ‘This event was 11 years ago before Tulip was an MP. Tulip only went to Russia to see her aunt and spend time with her family. ‘She had no role at any events she attended beyond being a family member.’A Tory party spokesman said, ‘This raises some serious questions about the circumstances regarding Tulip Siddiq’s so-called family trip to Moscow. ‘Over a decade later, it’s about time Tulip finally comes clean about her visit and the truth behind this photograph.’