The government has decided to send new gold crests to the foreign friends, who played vital roles during the 1971 Liberation War, "with a view to revive the country's image."
Supreme Court lawyer Manzill Murshid has received a letter in this regard from the Liberation War Affairs Ministry on Monday.
The lawyer told the Dhaka Tribune: “The letter, which was issued by the ministry on June 4, said a parliamentary probe body has already investigated the scandal over sham gold crests. The Liberation War Affairs Ministry will take measures to send new crests to the foreign friends through respective foreign embassies after getting the probe report.”
He said the letter singned by Assistant Secretary Md Rafiqul Islam, mentioned that the money of the new crests would be realised from the contracting company, which was allegedly involved in the scam.
However, AKM Mojammel Haque, minister of Liberation War Affairs Ministry, has denied the matter saying that he has no idea about the letter.
He said: "The ministery is yet to take any decision in this regard."
Earlier the SC lawyer sent a legal notice to the ministry concerned demanding to send the foreign friends new crests as “the matter involves the image of the country.”
On May 21, he filed a writ petition with the High Court as he did not receive any response from the government within three days.
On Monday, an HC bench comprising of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar dropped the petition from the case list saying it would not pass any order as the government has taken matter seriuosly and already launched probe.
From 2011 to 2013, the government honoured 338 foreign individuals and organisations for their contributions to the country’s liberation. Each honoree was given a crest, which was supposed to be made of one bhori (11.66g) of gold and 30 bhori (350g) of silver.
Later, a test conducted by Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution found that there was only about three ana (2.2g) of gold and three bhori (35g) of brass and copper in each crest.