Dr Yunus gets 6 months’ jail

A Dhaka court has sentenced Nobel Laureate Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus and three other top officials of Grameen Telecom to six months’ imprisonment in a labour law violation case.

The court also fined the convicts Tk 5,000 each under a section in the case, in default, they will have to serve ten more days in jail.

In another section of the case, the convicts were fined Tk 25,000 each, in default, they will have to serve 15 more days in jail.

Judge Sheikh Merina Sultana of Dhaka’s 3rd Labour Court handed down the verdict on Monday (January 1).

Three other convicts are managing director (MD) of Grameen Telecom Ashraful Hasan and directors Nurjahan Begum and Mohammad Shahjahan.

After the verdict, the four convicts filed bail petitions and the court granted them bail.

Earlier, they appeared at the courtroom at 1:35pm.

On December 24, the court fixed today to deliver the verdict after completing argument in the case.

On September 9, 2021, Labour Inspector (general) SM Arifuzzaman of the Inspection for Factories and Establishments Department (IFED) filed the case with the Third Labour Court of Dhaka.

According to the case documents, IFED officials on August 16, 2021, inspected the office of Grameen Telecom in the capital’s Mirpur and found several violations of labour laws.