Parliamentary investigation clears former state minister Tajul Islam of gold crest scandal

A parliamentary panel has found no link of former state minister for liberation war affairs AB Tajul Islam to the gold crest scam.

However, Liberation War affairs ministry found Tajul’s involvement in the scandal.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs has submitted its finds to the ministry sparing Islam, who now heads that very committee.

The panel on Apr 24 last year decided to investigate allegations that gold crests awarded to foreign friends during Bangladesh’s Liberation War had less than standard-quantity of gold.

It constituted a sub-committee with Md Afsarul Amin as its convener to conduct the investigation.

The scam took place when Tajul Islam was state minister of the Liberation War affairs ministry oversaw the crest-giving programme.

Following the allegation of fraud, the ministry, when it was being run by AKM Mozammel Huq, formed a committee.

According to media reports, the investigation had found involvement of Tajul, 13 ministry officials including former secretaries Mizanur Rahman and KH Masud Siddique, and the private suppliers in the scam.

On June 17, it was said at a meeting of the parliamentary panel that the cases filed by the ministry against the two supplier firms would ‘create problems’ for the sub-committee inquiry

Later, the parliamentary committee decided to have the matter looked into by a sub-committee.

The sub-committee submitted its report to the parliamentary panel on May 24 and it came up for discussion on Thursday at a meeting held in the parliament building.

After the meeting, parliamentary committee member Kamrul Laila Jolly told bdnews24.com: “We couldn’t read the report line by line. We’ve sent the report to the ministry after going through the recommendations.

“The ministry will act as per the recommendations of the committee,” she said.

An official attending the Thursday meeting told bdnews24.com on condition of anonymity: “The committee was supposed to have a detailed discussion on the sub-committee report, but it didn’t.

“(The committee) secretly sent the report to the ministry,” he said.

Committee chief Islam could not be reached on his phone for his version on the report despite several attempts.

The report, a copy of which is available with bdnews24.com, has found negligence of duty of the ministry officials including the secretary.

It suggested actions against the officials.  

They are former secretary Masud Siddiqui, Joint Secretary Abul Kashem Talukder, Deputy Secretary SM Enamul Kabir and Section Assistant Abul Kashem.

The report said: “In overall review, no proof of irregularity or negligence of duty by former state minister Tajul has been found.”

It also recommended pursuing ‘proper legal steps’ against the crest suppliers, Emicon and M/s Mohsinul Hasan, which have already been sued by the ministry.

The government decided to award the foreigners who had contributed to Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971.

As part of the decision, around 250 foreign nationals and organisations were given crests in seven phases until October 2013.

A newspaper reported at the time that the crests contained less gold than they were supposed to.

Amid widespread criticism, Sector Commanders Forum demanded an enquiry and punishment for the culprit.