A writ petition was filed with the High Court (HC) on Tuesday asking the court to order for a corruption probe into Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant financial irregularities allegedly allowed by ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, and her immediate family members.

Hasina, aided by her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and niece Tulip Siddiq, siphoned off Tk500 crore or $5 billion from the nearly $12.65 billion construction cost of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, as per a report published by Global Defense Corp on 17 August.

While the US-based website is little known in the media world, the allegations are still credible given a similar nuclear power project by the same implementation company, Russia’s Rosatom, costs around $4 billion in India.

To this end, Nationalist Democratic Movement (NDM) Chairman Bobby Hajjaj filed Tuesday’s writ petition in public interest. Hearing on the petition is expected to begin after 20 October.

The writ asks the High Court (HC) to issue a ruling asking the defendants and relevant authorities to explain why the inaction or failure of the defendants to prevent corruption in the nuclear power plant project should not be declared illegal.

It also asks for a HC directive to Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for launching a probe into the project, and consequently, bringing the culprits to justice.

A HC source informed reporters that an application was filed with the ACC last month to launch a corruption probe into Bangladesh’s first nuclear power project, following the publication of Global Defense Corp report.

However, as the ACC made no move in this regard, a HC writ had to be filed.