ACC presses charges against Yunus, 13 others

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday submitted before a Dhaka court the charge sheet of a case filed against Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and 13 others over the misappropriation of about Tk 25.22 crore of Grameen Telecom Workers’ Profit Participation Fund.

The charge sheet was filed yesterday with the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka by the investigation officer Gulshan Anwar Prodhan, a deputy director of the ACC.

The hearing on the acceptance of the charge sheet will be held on March 3, said court sources.

Nazmul Islam, the managing director of Grameen Telecom; Ashraful Hassan, Naznin Sultana, Parvin Mahmud, M Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum and SM Huzzatul Islam Latifee, all directors of Grameen Telecom are also accused.

Kamruzzaman, president of Sramik-Karmachari Union, Firoz Mahmud Hasan, its general secretary, and Mainul Islam, its representative, are co-accused along with Kamrul Hasan, office secretary of Jatiya Workers Federation, and lawyers Zafrul Hasan Sharif and Yusuf Ali.

All 13 accused have been shown as fugitives in the charge sheet, which was approved by the ACC on January 29 after Prodhan filed the case with the ACC’s integrated district office in Dhaka on May 30 last year.

The investigator also appealed to the court to issue arrest warrants against the fugitives.

Only Parvin Mahmud, who is the wife of Jatiyo Party lawmaker Anisul Islam Mahmud, is now on bail in the case.

Meanwhile, Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday said that lies were being spread abroad about the labour law violations case filed against Yunus.

“A propaganda is going on in this regard too,” he said during a press conference held at the Secretariat to counter the “conspiracy that is being hatched against the state”.

The government cannot remain silent when attempts are made to defame the country’s dignity, he said.

“There is a law in the country — we will run the country according to that law. Despite irrefutable evidence, it is being spread abroad that the allegations against him [Yunus] are false, and it is being said it was done for harassment. These allegations are not true.”

Propaganda is being spread centring a case to undermine the country’s court, judiciary and continuity of dignity, democracy and justice in Bangladesh, he said.

“We will tell the truth through the media. We don’t follow anyone’s directions.”

Huq maintained that the government is “not doing anything to harass Yunus”.

The government is not harassing him by filing any false case.

The case against him was filed by the workers, after which the department responsible for protecting workers’ rights prosecuted him, he said.

The executive, legislature and judiciary belong to all the people of Bangladesh.

“No one is above the law. If anyone commits a crime, they will have to face justice through the law,” Huq added.

On January 1, the Labour Court-3 of Dhaka sentenced Yunus and three others to six months in jail and fined them Tk 30,000 each for violating labour laws.

On September 9, 2021, Labour Inspector (General) SM Arifuzzaman filed the case against them.