Dhaka: The High Court (HC) on Wednesday issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain why it should not be directed to constitute an inquiry commission for hunting down the conspirators who fabricated stories about corruption conspiracy in the Padma Bridge project.

A two‐member HC bench comprising Justice Quazi Reza‐Ul Hoque and Justice Mohammad Ullah issued the suo motto rule taking cognisance of a report published by vernacular daily Inqilab on the issue.

The Cabinet Secretary, the Law Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Inspector General of Police were made respondents to the rule.

Besides, the court directed the Cabinet Secretary to submit a report within 30 days mentioning what steps have taken to form the probe body.

On 14 February, the Inqilab, a vernacular Bangla daily, carried a report titled ‘Demanding punishment for Yunus’.

In the report, it was said the government’s image was tarnished as the World Bank (WB) cancelled its USD 1.2 billion credit for the Padma Bridge project raising an allegation of corruption.

The government suspected that Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus played the role behind the loan cancellation, the report said.

Ruling Awami League and its associate bodies think that Dr Yunus should be brought to justice for tarnishing the government’s image raising false allegation of corruption about the Padma Bridge project, the report said.

On Friday, a Canadian court acquitted two former officials of engineering firm SNC‐Lavalin and a Bangladeshi‐Canadian businessman of the charges of planning to bribe Bangladeshi officials to secure a consultancy contract in the Padma bridge project, in which the World Bank was supposed to be the lead financier.