Nobel laureate of Grameen Bank appealed to the High Court
Nobel Peace Prize winning economist and founder of Grameen Bank appealed to the High Court challenging the legality of complaints in the case of embezzlement of dividends by Grameen Telecom employees. Muhammad Yunus. The petition seeks quashing of the order framing the complaint.
Monday (July 8) Dr. Yunus’s lawyer, Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, filed the petition.
Justice Md. The application will be heard in the High Court bench of Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Kazi Ibadat Hossain.
In the case of dividend embezzlement of Grameen Telecom workers on June 12, the chairman of the company Dr. The court framed charges against 14 people including Muhammad Yunus. The lawyer said that the date of taking testimony in this regard has been set on July 15. Judge Syed Arafat Hossain of Dhaka Special Judge Court-4 gave this order.
Earlier, on June 2, the court reserved the order after hearing both sides on the formulation of the complaint. Dr. Lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun was in the hearing on behalf of the defendants including Yunus. Lawyer Mosharraf Hossain Kajol heard on behalf of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Later, lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun said that an appeal will be made to the High Court seeking the cancellation of the complaint order. For this reason, I applied to postpone the testimony by two months. The court fixed July 15 as a date for hearing the testimony, giving a month’s time. An appeal will be made to the High Court against this order.
The ACC filed a case on May 30 last year on charges of embezzlement of Tk. 25 crore 22 lakh 6 thousand 780 of the dividend of Grameen Telecom workers. According to the statement of the case, in the presence of Yunus and Nazmul Islam, Gramin Telecom board members, according to the decision of the 108th board held on May 9, 2022, the account was opened at Gulshan branch of Dhaka Bank. However, the bank account was opened a day earlier. A settlement agreement was signed with the Grameen Telecom Employees Union and Grameen Telecom on April 27 of that year for the distribution of dividends owed to Grameen Telecom employees. The settlement agreement also shows the May 8 bank account, which is practically impossible. According to the terms of the ‘fake’ settlement agreement and the decision of the 108th board, Grameen Telecom’s Tk 437 crore 1 lakh 12 thousand 621 was transferred from United Commercial Bank’s Mirpur branch to Dhaka Bank’s Gulshan branch on May 10, 2022.
Later, according to the decision of the 109th board meeting held on June 22, additional payment of Tk 1 crore 63 lakh 91 thousand 389 as advocate fee was approved. On the other hand, a total of 26 crore 22 lakh 6 thousand 780 taka was transferred from the account of the Gulshan branch of Dhaka Bank to the account of the local office of the Grameen Telecom Sramik Sanghabhi Union named Dutch Bangla Bank.
But before the distribution of dividends to the employees without informing them of the amount due to them, CBA leader Md. Kamruzzaman, Mainul Islam and Feroz Mahmud Hasan were transferred as Mirpur branch of Dutch Bangla Bank for Tk 3 crore.
Similarly, the lawyer said. Yusuf Ali’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon Dhanmondi Branch 4 crores and The City Bank’s Gulshan Branch 5 crores and lawyer Zafrul Hasan Sharif and lawyer Md. 6 crore was jointly transferred to Gulshan North Branch of Standard Chartered Bank of Yusuf Ali, which was not due to them.
According to ACC records, only Rs 1 crore was actually transferred as advocate fee. The remaining Tk 25 crore 22 lakh 6 thousand 780 Grameen Telecom chairman, managing director, board members with the help of Grameen Telecom’s CBA leaders and lawyers have embezzled the said money from Grameen Telecom under the shelter of fraud for ‘dishonest purpose’ in violation of the terms of the settlement agreement.
