Dr Yunus gets 6-month jail for violating labour law

A labour court ¬here today convicted and sentenced Grameen Telecom Chairman and Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus and three others to six-month jail in a case filed against them for violating labour law.

Judge Sheikh Merina Sultana of Dhaka’s 3rd Labour Court pronounced the judgment at around 3.05 pm in presence of all the four convicts.

“We have tried the chairman of Grameen Telecom here, not the Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus.

The charges framed against the four accused were proved beyond any reasonable doubt,” the judge said while delivering the verdict.

The three other convicts are- Grameen Telecom’s director and former managing director Md Ashraful Hasan, members of Board of Directors Nur Jahan Begum and Md Shahjahan The court however, allowed the four convicts bail after pronouncement of the judgment.

Earlier on December 24, the court had fixed today for pronouncing the verdict.

Marking the judgment, Dr Muhammad Yunus came to the court at around 1.40 pm with his lawyers. The judge started reading out the summary of the total 84-page judgment at 2.15 pm.

Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) Inspector Arifuzzaman filed the case on September 9, 2021.

The court on June 6, 2023, framed charges in the case.

A total of four prosecution witnesses including the plaintiff testified on different hearing dates.

According to the case documents, a team of the DIFE went on an inspection to the Grameen Telecom and found the violations of labour laws like not regularizing 101 staff ,not establishing a welfare fund for the laborers, and not paying five percent of the company’s dividends to the workers, among others.

Earlier, DIFE lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said they have sought the highest punishment of Dr Muhammad Yunus and the three others in the case. (BSS)