The government is yet to take decision whether it would send new gold crests to the foreign friends, who played vital roles during the 1971 Liberation War, says a letter issued by the Liberation War Affairs Ministry.
“In addition, the ministry had no authority to take such decision,” said in a reply to a legal notice of a Supreme Court lawyer.
In its earlier reply signed by ministry’s assistant secretary Md Rafiqul Islam it was said: “The alleged scam in gold crests is under the investigation of a parliamentary sub-committee. After getting the probe report, necessary steps will be taken on the matters of the already paid-bill to be realised from the crests supplier company called Amicon and making new crests to give to the foreign friends through the High Commissions or ambassadors of Bangladesh.”
The new reply, also signed by assistant secretary Md Rafiqul Islam, was issued on June 11, but received by the lawyer Manzill Murshid on Thursday.
The reply was sent on Monday after the lawyer said the government primarily decided to give new crests to the 338 foreign friends.
The lawyer told the Dhaka Tribune: “It seems after reading the reply, there is a hide and seek game continued.” But he would not make any move to conduct the case on the other bench as the ministry did not say that they would not give new crest.
Manzill Murshid on May 14 served a legal notice to the ministry demanding to send the foreign friends new crests as “the matter involves the image of the country.”
Not getting the reply in due time, the lawyer filed a writ petition which was dropped from the case list by a High Court bench on June 9.
On Monday, an HC bench comprising of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Khurshid Alam Sarkar dropped the plea saying they would not interfere on the matter as the government had taken the matter seriously and already launched probe.
After the court order, Manzill received the previous reply of the ministry on the same day which was issued on June 4.
However, AKM Mojammel Haque, minister of Liberation War Affairs Ministry, denied the matter saying that he has no idea about the letter.
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.
