Staff Correspondent:

The Anti-Corruption Commission has started the process to bring back ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her niece Tulip Siddiq, said its Commissioner Brigadier General (retd) Hafiz Ahsan Farid on Tuesday.

“We have started the work. The ACC has started the process to bring them back,” he said while talking to reporters at the ACC office in Segunbagicha in the capital.

After the interim government took office, several cases were filed against Sheikh Hasina and her family members on charges of murder, enforced disappearances, corruption, fraud and abuse of power.

The ACC filed six cases against Sheikh Hasina and her family members on charges of abusing power and forgery in obtaining 60 katha plots of 10 katha each in a RAJUK housing project.

When asked about bringing former UK minister Tulip Siddiq back to the country, Hafiz Ahsan said, “We have sent documents from here to the Ministry of Home Affairs which is called a Mutual Legal Assistance Request (MLAR).”

“It will go to the foreign embassy through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From there it will go to the Bangladesh embassy. We have started that work. The ACC has started the process to bring them back,” he added.

Regarding the return of Tulip Siddiq, he said he could not tell about the legal process of how to bring her back to the country. “A case has been filed against her as a Bangladeshi citizen.”

Mentioning Tulip as Bangladeshi NID and passport holder, he said, “The letters given to her have been sent to her Bangladeshi address. We do not consider her a foreign citizen. When the case was filed she was staying abroad. Initiatives will be taken to bring her back,” he also said.

“We are at the stage of agreements with various international anti-corruption agencies. We will get help from them once the deal is done,” he added.