DHAKA, June 15: The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Friday said that 'false cases' were being filed against her as part of a conspiracy to keep her out of the elections.

“The only aim of such activities is to keep me out of the next elections,” Hasina told reporters at her Sudha Sadan residence in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, she was forced to postpone her planned departure for the United States by an Emirate flight this evening. The postponement came after a court asked the immigration authorities concerned not to allow her leave the country.

“We contacted the immigration authorities at Zia International Airport a couple of hours ago, and were told that they cannot allow our leader to leave because of the court order,” said a close associate of Sheikh Hasina.

However, rejecting extortion charges brought against her by two businessmen, the AL chief said that the government should know that extortion and donation were not the same thing.

Hasina claimed that the filing cases against her was nothing but a conspiracy to deprive the people of her services, which she said, she had been providing for over the last two decades of her political career.

She said she had reports that some 30 cases of 'extortion' would be filed against her and a quarter was trying to force more businessmen, including the owners of Pran, Akij Bidi and Sharif Melamine to make false statements and taking their signatures in this regard.

“Let them file a hundred cases, let there be investigations. If I am proved guilty let them punish me. But I know I have not done any wrong,' she said adding, 'I know they may punish me on false charges.”

“I never asked for anything from anyone, donation is accepted to run a party…it's nothing new and if someone donates money to a party it could not be regarded as extortion,” she said, adding that it was the moral duty of a businessman, if he was a party sympathiser, to donate to the party he supported as every member of a family did.

The AL president said that pressures were being mounted on lawyers not to provide legal aid to her.

'We have already talked to a number of lawyers and they said they had been asked not to defend us', she said terming the move as double standard as the government on the one hand said it wanted to separate the judiciary and on the other it was trying to influence lawyers.

About the reported restrictions on her travel, Hasina said she could not understand why the government had tried to block her return previously and was now imposing restrictions on her going abroad on the plea of problems in investigations of the cases against her.

She said that she did not get any instruction from the government in this regard as yet and her schedule to fly for the US remained unchanged.

“Why should I not be allowed to visit my daughter who is expected to give birth to a child within three weeks”, said a visibly emotional Hasina.

About the much-talked-about reforms in the political parties, Hasina said that it was she who had first raised the issue and made it popular.

She said that defying the ban some people were conducting political activities. If they can do so, why she should not be allowed to convene a meeting of her party's working committee to discuss the issue of reforms.

“But Section 144 has been imposed around my house, not more than four persons are allowed in at a time and I am passing days in such a situation,” she said.