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The legal walls are closing in on British Member of Parliament Tulip Siddiq as a Dhaka court issued a fresh arrest warrant today, Wednesday, February 18, 2026. This latest development stems from a high-profile corruption case involving the alleged illegal acquisition of a luxury apartment in Gulshan-2, Dhaka. Presiding Judge Md. Sabbir Faiz of the Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court accepted the formal charge sheet filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), escalating the case from investigation to active prosecution.
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The Gulshan Flat Scam: Evidence and Charges
The core of the prosecution’s case rests on the allegation that Tulip Siddiq, utilizing the immense political influence of her aunt, ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, secured a flat from Eastern Housing Limited without making any financial payment. According to ACC Public Prosecutor Mir Ahammed Ali Salam, the investigation has uncovered internal documents from the developer showing Siddiq’s name on a list of owners who received properties as "illicit benefits" rather than through purchase.
Further complicating her defense, tax records seized by the ACC suggest a pattern of concealment. While Siddiq claimed to have paid an "advance to developers" in her tax filings between 2006 and 2015, property records indicate she had already held full ownership since 2002. Investigators also claim that a 'Heba' (gift) deed used to transfer the property to her sister, Azmina Siddiq, was a fraudulent document created to mask the property's origins and current ownership.
A Rapidly Expanding Legal Crisis
This warrant is not an isolated incident but part of a broader judicial crackdown following the political shift in Bangladesh. Just weeks ago, on February 2, 2026, a separate court sentenced British Bangladeshi politician Tulip Siddiq in absentia to four years of imprisonment—two years for each of two counts—regarding the illegal allocation of government plots in the Purbachal New Town Project. This followed an earlier two-year sentence handed down in December 2025.
The latest charge sheet also names Sardar Mosharraf Hossain, a former assistant legal adviser for the Capital Development Authority (RAJUK), as a co-conspirator. The court has demanded a progress report on the execution of these arrest warrants by March 8, 2026.
The Extradition Question: Will She Be Sent Back?
Despite the mounting convictions and warrants in Dhaka, the likelihood of Tulip Siddiq being extradited to face these charges remains statistically near zero. British legal history has never seen a sitting Member of Parliament extradited to a foreign nation under these circumstances. Furthermore, there is no formal extradition treaty between the United Kingdom and Bangladesh.
Legal experts in London emphasize that the UK government traditionally views such prosecutions from recently overturned regimes with high skepticism, often classifying them as politically motivated. Siddiq herself has consistently maintained that these charges are a "smear campaign" orchestrated by the new administration in Dhaka to tarnish her reputation and that of her family.
What Lies Ahead
As the March 8 deadline approaches, the diplomatic tension between Dhaka and London is expected to rise. While the warrants carry significant weight in Bangladesh—effectively barring Siddiq from ever entering the country without facing immediate detention—they remain unenforceable on British soil. The focus now shifts to whether the UK Parliament’s own standards commissioner will launch a parallel inquiry into these documented allegations of offshore asset concealment and tax discrepancies.
