Tulip Siddiq has resigned as anti-corruption minister after getting embroiled in a corruption scandal. A number of questions had been raised about her following an investigation by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission into the country’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed last year and just happens to be Siddiq’s aunt.
The accusations centre on properties that it is alleged were made available or given to Siddiq directly or indirectly by people closely connected to the former regime. There are also questions about her attendance at an event in Moscow in 2013, before she was an MP and long before she became a government minister. The event was the opening of a power station now at the centre of the alleged embezzlement of £3.9 billion of infrastructure spending.
On January 14, a criminal case was reportedly filed by Bangladeshi authorities against Siddiq and other members of her family named in the investigation. A spokesperson for Siddiq has said: “No evidence has been presented for these allegations. Tulip has not been contacted by anyone on the matter and totally refutes the claims.”
