By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
On January 1, 2024, a labour court in Dhaka, Bangladesh sentenced Grameen Telecom chairman and controversial 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 in presence of all the four convicts.
The court also fined them BDT 5,000 each, to suffer 10-day jail in default under a section of the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006. It also fined them BDT 25,000 each, to suffer 15-day behind bars in default.
“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, granted the four convicts one-month bail on condition of filing an appeal.
It may be mentioned here that, 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 labor 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.
Following the verdict, Bangladesh’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said the court has convicted Grameen Bank founder Dr Muhammad Yunus and later he was granted bail for filing an appeal.“Some people are trying to spread confusion over the issue and they are trying to make role of the government questionable”, he said. “The government is not a party here and it didn’t file the case. The workers of Grameen Telecom sued Dr Yunus as he didn’t pay dues of the workers. And he was convicted in that case”, Dr Hasan Mahmud said.
Dr Hasan, who is also the Awami League Joint General Secretary, said the Grameen Telecom has a legal obligation of distributing five percent of its profits to its employees, which has never been paid.
For this, the workers have filed a case under Sections 4, 7, 8, 117 and 234 of the Labor Act. Grameen Telecom tried to manage two labor leaders by giving bribe of BDT 60 million, but failed.
Dr Hasan said there have been allegations that the Grameen Telecom is violating norms, evading taxes, misappropriating its employees’ welfare funds and misappropriating BDT 3,000 crore from different affiliated organizations for more than a decade.
The minister said according to the Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983, the Managing Director of Grameen Bank was to be appointed by government. And according to the amendment of 1990, the responsibility of appointing the MD was transferred to the Board of Directors of Grameen Bank subject to the prior approval of Bangladesh Bank, he added. He said the chairman of the board of directors had requested the approval of Bangladesh Bank to appoint Dr Yunus as Managing Director on August 14, 1990.
The information minister said Bangladesh Bank gave no objection to the appointment of Dr Yunus subject to conditions. And the conditions are – (1) ‘The terms and conditions of employment of the MD shall be governed by the provisions of Section 4 of the Grameen Bank Ordinance 14 of 1983. (2) The Board of Directors will make rules under section 36 of the ordinance, which will come into effect after publication in the official gazette. (3) As per government service rules, an MD cannot cross the age limit of 60 years”..
But the board of directors of Grameen Bank at its 52nd meeting in July 1999 adopted a resolution extending Muhammad Yunus’s service as the Managing Director for an unlimited period, when he was 59.”It was a clear violation of Section 4 of Article 14 of the Grameen Bank Ordinance,” the minister said, adding that “the ulterior motive of his appointment was later proved”, the minister said.
Dr Mahmud said according to Section 21 and 12 of the Bangladesh Penal Code, the Managing Director of Grameen Bank is considered a public servant. Dr Yunus violated the terms and conditions of his employment as a public servant. he said a full-time government employee, Dr Yunus frequent remained absent from work without any government approval. Mahmud said money from Grameen Bank has been transferred or capitalized to many institutions associated with his family’s interests.
“Many Nobel laureates of the world were convicted of criminal and civil offences and many of them have served in jail for long”, Dr Hasan said. He said there is no scope of spreading confusion about the court verdict against Dr Muhammad Yunus. The court in Bangladesh has worked independently, he added.
Meanwhile, following the verdict, Muhammad Yunus claimed they were being punished for a “crime they had not committed”. “If you want to call it justice, you are free to do so”, the controversial Nobel laureate told reporters on the court premises in response to a question.“It was in our fate, in the nation’s fate”, he added.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment, which had filed the case, said he was satisfied with the judgement, adding that the allegations against the four had been proven.
Meanwhile, taking undue advantage of this verdict, ultra-Islamist and pro-Pakistan Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its band of cyber-activists including Qatari asset and Al Jazeera reporter David Bergman has started spreading disinformation on social media accusing Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Awami League government for getting Yunus convicted.
It may also be mentioned here that, David Bergman has teamed up with a number of anti-India and pro-Pakistan cyber activists including Pinaki Bhattacharya (who converted into Islam after joining Jamaat-e-Islami and been consistently demonizing India, Hindus, Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi); Zulkarnain Saer Sami, alias Zulkarnain Saer, alias Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami alias Tanvir Md. Sadat; and Tasneem Khalil. (IPA)
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