Dhaka, June 12, 2024 – A Dhaka court docket has officially charged Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus and 13 others in reference to the embezzlement of about Tk25 crore from dividends intended for Grameen Telecom people. The prices have been examine out by Judge Syed Arafat Hossain of the Dhaka Special Judge Court-four. During the courtroom consultation, all accused, inclusive of Dr. Yunus, have been present and pleaded not responsible, in search of justice from the court docket. Despite their plea for exemption, the court docket rejected their request and scheduled the trial to begin on July 15.
The indictment follows a chain of legal lawsuits initiated by using the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). ACC lawyer Mahmud Hossain Jahangir represented the prosecution, while Dr. Yunus’s defense was led with the aid of legal professional Abdullah Al Mamun, who argued for the exemption of all 14 accused, including Dr. Yunus.
Earlier, on April 2, Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Ash-Shams Joglul Hossain widespread the ACC’s rate sheet, which brought about the transfer of the case to Special Judge Court-four. The rate sheet changed into submitted by using ACC Deputy Director Gulshan Anwar Pradhan on February 1, 2024, after the case become to start with filed in May of the previous 12 months.
The different accused people include Grameen Telecom’s Managing Director Nazmul Islam, administrators Ashraful Hasan, Naznin Sultana, Parvin Mahmud, Md Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum, and SM Huzzatul Islam Latifee. Additionally charged are Sramik-Karmachari Union President Md Kamruzzaman, General Secretary Firoz Mahmud Hasan, representative Md Mainul Islam, Jatiya Sramik Federation Office Secretary Kamrul Hasan, and lawyers Zafrul Hasan Sharif and Yusuf Ali.
The case stems from a selection made in the course of the 108th board meeting of Grameen Telecom, chaired by way of Dr. Yunus on May 9, 2022, to open a financial institution account at Dhaka Bank’s Gulshan department. It was later located that this account were opened a day previous to the meeting. Subsequently, over Tk26 crore changed into transferred into this account through what have been defined as “fake agreement agreements” and board decisions. The prosecution alleges that before informing the employees and dispensing their proportion of the enterprise’s profit, the accused conspired to embezzle about Tk25 crore from the fund.
The court’s indictment order closes a big bankruptcy of pre-trial hearings and opens the way for the trial, a good way to look at the jobs and duties of each accused inside the alleged misappropriation of budget precise for employee dividends. This excessive-profile case keeps to draw sizable public and media interest, given Dr. Yunus’s global stature and the severe nature of the allegations.