$5 bn nuclear graft probe launched against Hasina

An anti-graft panel in Bangladesh has launched an investigation against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her family in connection with the allegations of embezzling USD 5 billion in the Rooppur nuclear power plant, according to a media report.

Indian companies are participating in constructing the Rooppur nuclear power plant which is being built by Rosatom, Russia’s state-run corporation, in Bangladesh.

The first Bangladeshi nuclear power plant, the Russian-designed Rooppur, is being built 160 km west of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka.

Rosatom has refuted the “provocative statements” in the media about the Rooppur NPP project.

Along with Hasina, her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and Tulip Siddiq, her niece and the UK’s Treasury minister, were also questioned, BDNews reported on Sunday.

There are accusations of embezzling USD 5 billion in the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project, the report added.

The development came two days after the High Court issued a rule asking why the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) inaction over an alleged transfer of USD 5 billion from the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project to a Malaysian bank by Hasina, Joy, and Tulip should not be declared illegal, the report added. Bangladesh-based International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has issued arrest warrants for Hasina and several former ministers and military and civil officials for “crimes against humanity”.

Will protect human rights: Yunus, US NSA

Amid growing outrage over the large-scale attack on minority Hindus and their places of worship in Bangladesh, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Monday spoke with the interim government’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and both leaders expressed their commitment to protecting human rights in this troubled South Asian nation.