Labour law violationDr Yunus jailed for six months

A Dhaka court on Monday sentenced Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, also the chairman of Grameen Telecom, and its three other top officials to six-month imprisonment in a case filed for violating labour laws.

Sheikh Merina Sultana, chairman of the Dhaka Third Labour Court, delivered the verdict in presence of all the four convicts this afternoon.

Dr Yunus and other convicts – Grameen Telecom officials Md Ashraful Hasan, Nurjahan Begum, and Md Shahjahan, were also fined Tk25,000 each.

The court granted one-month bail to all of them on condition of filing appeals against the verdict.

Earlier, Dr Yunus appeared before the court around 1:45 pm. The judge started reading out the summary of the 84-page judgement around 2:15 pm.

In its observation, the court said it tried Dr Yunus as the chairman of Grameen Telecom, not as the Nobel laureate.

On 24 December 2023, the court fixed 1 January 2024 for delivering the judgement in the case as both sides – prosecution and defence – concluded their closing arguments. It framed charges against the accused on 6 June last year.

On 9 September 2021, Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) Labour Inspector SM Arifuzzaman filed the case against the four defendants.

According to the case statement, during an inspection, the DIFE officials found that the company’s 101 workers and staff who were supposed to be permanent were not made so.

Besides, no participation and welfare funds were formed for them, and 5% of the company’s profit was not provided to the workers as per the law.