Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed has been sued for corruption in two cases involving financial irregularity to the tune of taka nine billion.

Abdullah Al Zahid, an official of the Bureau of Anti-Corruption, yesterday filed both the cases with Tejgaon police station implicating Sheikh Hasina and eight other ministers, civil and military officials.

The plaintiff in his FIR said the accused had misappropriated taka seven billion in the procurement of eight MiG-29s from Russia in 1998-99 while taka two billion had been misappropriated in awarding a tender of Export Processing Zone (EPZ) to a consulting firm in 2000-2001.

Anti-corruption officials said nine other corruption cases were filed yesterday in different police stations in Dhaka implicating former Home Minister Mohammad Nasim, Deputy Minister for Shipping Saber Chowdhury, State Minister for Jute, A.K. Faezul Huq, and some bureaucrats.

In the first case involving the purchase of MiG-29s, Sheikh Hasina, former Air Chief Air Vice Marshal Jamaludin Ahmed, former defence secretary and incumbent comptroller general, Syed Yussuf Hossain, former joint secretary, Brig. Iftekharul Bashar, and deputy secretary of defence, Hasan Mahmud Delwar, have been implicated in the FIR.

In the second case, with regard to awarding a tender of Export Processing Zone to a consulting firm, Sheikh Hasina, former State Minister for Foreign Affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury, former principal secretary of Dr S.A. Samad, and executive chairman of Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority, Brig. M.A.B. Siddique Talukder, have been implicated.

The anti-corruption bureau will begin investigating the cases. Hasina is now in the United States on a month-long private visit.