Court accepts charge sheet against Dr Yunus in graft case

A Dhaka court has accepted the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) charge sheet
against 14 people, including Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen Telecom chairman, in a case filed over embezzlement of funds. 

Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Ash-Shams Joglul Hossain passed the order on Tuesday. The next date for the case's proceedings has been set for May 2. 

Later, an order for the transfer of the case to Special Judge-4 for trial was given.

Lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun, representing Dr Yunus, confirmed this information.

Dr Yunus surrendered through a lawyer in the same court on March 3 and applied for bail, which the court granted.

On February 1, the investigating officer of the case, ACC Deputy Director Gulshan Anwar Pradhan, filed the charge sheet against 14 individuals, including Dr Yunus, in court.

The other accused are Grameen Telecom Managing Director Nazmul Islam, directors Ashraful Hasan, Naznin Sultana, Parvin Mahmud, Md Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum and SM Huzzatul Islam Latifee, Sramik-Karmachari Union President Md Kamruzzaman and General Secretary Firoz Mahmud Hasan, office secretary Qamrul Islam, lawyers Zafrul Hasan Sharif and Md Yusuf Ali and representative Md Mainul Islam.

The ACC on May 30, 2023, filed the case with its Dhaka-1 integrated district office.

According to the case documents, a decision was made in the company's 108th board meeting, presided over by Dr Yunus on May 9, 2022, to open a bank account with the Gulshan branch of Dhaka Bank Limited. But it was found that the account had been opened a day before the decision was even made.

More than Tk26 crore was transferred to the account on different occasions, as per “fake settlement agreements” and decisions of the board. But before even distributing the share of the company's profit to the workers, and letting them know, the accused embezzled around Tk25 crore from the fund, the case documents say.