"We have been branded as billionaires. Where is that money? I will give all the money if anyone can specify the sources," Hasina told journalists when she went to see her party's ailing senior leader Zillur Rahman at Birdem hospital in the capital.

Hasina said AL men have been charged with false allegations. Terming this sad, she said, "We have been tortured during the last five years when the BNP-Jamaat coalition government was in power. If there were any accusation of corruption, didn't they [BNP-Jamaat] take action?"

The AL president threw another challenge that no one can prove she had asked anyone to give toll. "I have never done it," Hasina said firmly, adding, "The people know very well how we operate and what we do."

She also said it is not right to treat the AL leaders with the "real big thieves".

The former prime minister called upon the military-backed caretaker government to take initiative for holding the next election as early as possible as it is the 'demand of the people'. "People should be given the chance to elect a government of their choice," she said, adding that the election should have been held much earlier.

About the budget to be placed today, Hasina said the constitution does not allow the caretaker government to present a budget the way it has been planned.

"There is a saying -- no representation, no taxation," she said.

Referring to the 1996 caretaker government that had placed a budget for two months, she said the government could have given a short-time interim budget.

"Where and how will they place the budget?" she posed a question.

About an AL man's filing of the case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and 27 others for the August 21 grenade attacks, Hasina said she does not know whether the complainant has any affiliation with her party. "I am not sure whether the name of the person has been included in the list of those who were wounded in the attack. I should see the list again," she said.

Badar Aziz Uddin, reportedly a worker of Cox's Bazar AL who was injured in the August 21 attacks, on Tuesday filed a case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka against 28 people, including Khaleda Zia, her son Tarique Rahman and BNP-led coalition partner Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami on allegations of attacking an AL rally that left 24 people dead and many others injured.

Hasina criticised publication of news items based on the statements made by a few senior leaders of her party who have been recently arrested and interrogated by the joint forces.

When the top leaders of extremist outfit JMB were arrested, their statements were not published although people wanted to know it, she said, adding, "But this time the statements came out in CD format which is merely suspicious."

She said continuous price hike of essentials has made people's lives miserable.

AL leaders Matia Chowdhury and Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, among others, accompanied Hasina to Birdem.