A Bangladeshi court on Thursday ordered the arrest of 18 individuals, including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her daughter Saima Wazed Putul, for alleged corruption involving land allocations in the Purbachal New Town project, local media said.
Dhaka Senior Special Judge Zakir Hossain accepted a chargesheet submitted by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and instructed authorities to furnish a progress report on the implementation of the warrants by May 5.
In another but connected case against the same housing project, a new chargesheet was submitted with 23 individuals, including Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana, and four other relatives, listed as accused, according to Prothom Alo, a leading Bangladeshi daily.
These latest legal developments join a lengthening list of corruption cases filed against Hasina. Altogether, she now has six cases pending over alleged irregularities in the allotment of plots under the Purbachal project.
Only last month, a Bangladeshi tribunal also issued arrest warrants against Hasina and four others — including former Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed — for their alleged role in the 2013 Shapla Chattar incident, where mass killings were alleged.
Earlier this year, in January, a special tribunal in Dhaka issued another arrest warrant against Hasina and 11 others for alleged incidents of enforced disappearances.
Ironically, the same court had been originally established during Hasina's own administration under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act for trying those war criminals responsible for war crimes done by the Pakistan army and their collaborators during the 1971 Liberation War.
Onlookers and analysts are interpreting the increasing legal suits against Hasina and her associates as evidence of a wider political grudge by the caretaker government headed by Muhammad Yunus. After Hasina was removed from power in August 2024, an avalanche of cases — frequently seen as unwarranted — were brought against her and top leaders of the Awami League.
Hasina, a leading voice in Bangladesh's democratic struggle and daughter of the country's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, went into exile from the country in fear and escaped to India on August 5, 2024.
In a virtual speech to Awami League loyalists in India in February, the deposed Prime Minister blamed Yunus' administration for causing anarchy and bloodshed in the country.
"Yunus has no experience of governing the country. He disbanded all inquiry committees and let loose the terrorists to kill people. They are dismantling Bangladesh. We will expose this government of terrorists," Hasina stated.
Emphasizing her determination, she said:
"I will come back. The murderers will get justice in Bangladesh. Their day of reckoning will come on Bangladeshi soil. Maybe that's the reason Allah has spared my life."
She also showed great concern about the agony of common citizens, vowing to deliver justice to families hit by the ongoing regime's supposed abuses.
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