Former City Minister of United Kingdom, Tulip Siddiq was facing questions about whether she misled Parliament over the ownership of a flat in her native Bangladesh on Saturday, reports Mail Online.
The £600,000 apartment in the capital Dhaka is the subject of an asset-freezing order at the request of the country's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which is investigating the Labour MP.
Ms Siddiq, 42, who denies any wrongdoing, has told the the media that she received the flat as a gift from her parents in 2002 and transferred it 'lawfully and legitimately' to her sister, Azmina, 34, within weeks of being elected to Parliament in May 2015.
Entries in Westminster's Register of Members' Interests state that she co-owned the property with a family member in June 2015 and by the following month ownership had been transferred.
But searches made last week by the Mail Online at the Dhaka Sub Registry Office appear to show that Ms Siddiq still owns the flat, as the ACC alleges. A Bangladeshi court will now decide who owns it.
Last month, the ACC said that Ms Siddiq tried to 'transfer' ownership of the flat to Azmina in 2015 using a Heba, an Islamic document which allows a person to hand over an asset to a family member 'out of love'.
However, experts said that under Bangladeshi law a property transfer is not considered legal until its ownership is changed at the Sub Registry Office.
The ACC claimed the Heba was 'fake', as the barrister who authenticated it denied being involved and alleged that his signature was faked.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
