Former prime minister and Awami League (AL) president Sheikh Hasina, who has been charged with two corruption cases involving 702 crore Taka, has said the cases against her were ''fabricated'' to harass her and her former cabinet colleagues.
Ms Hasina, who is now in Miami, USA, told a news channel on Tuesday night that about a dozen cases were filed before noon on Tuesday against her and some cabinet members. ''People would understand that it is motivated from the fact that so many cases were filed in a single day,'' she pointed out.
Responding to corruption allegations in the purchase of eight MIG-29s, she said when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was in the Opposition, it had filed a case in the high court on the issue, and the matter was scrutinized by Parliamentary Standing Committee on defence.

''Now we will face it in the court because I know I have worked with honesty. We will fight it legally, but it is clear that the cases were filed to harass us,'' Ms Hasina said.

The former prime minister said that had her government indulged in corruption, the country would not have gained GDP of 6.6 per cent and kept inflation at 1.59 per cent.

Bureau Report