Court Correspondent :
Tulip Siddiq, a Labour Minister of the UK and a niece of ousted Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, has been interviewed by Cabinet Office officials over allegations of embezzlement by her family.
She is being investigated over claims that she and four family members embezzled £4 billion through a nuclear power plant deal in Bangladesh.
On Sunday, it emerged that the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team questioned Ms Siddiq over the allegations. It followed the disclosure that she could be questioned by anti-corruption officials from Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) launched its investigation into Ms Siddiq, 42, last week, along with her mother, Sheikh Rehana Siddiq, 69, and aunt, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, 77, Bangladesh’s deposed Prime Minister, who was ousted after 15 years in the post.
The ACC was ordered to investigate by Bangladesh’s High Court, which heard claims that the Minister and family members siphoned £4 billion from the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project through fake companies and Malaysian bank accounts into the UK and US.
Sir Keir Starmer has stood by Ms Siddiq, who denies the claims and said no authority has contacted her so far about the allegations. Labour party officials described the claims as “spurious” and made for political reasons by opponents of Ms Wazed.
The Mail on Sunday reported that five investigators were gathering “documentary evidence” relating to Ms Siddiq and others, and were likely to write to them within weeks for their responses.
