August 12, 2024
DHAKA – Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus has been acquitted in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), four days after being cleared of charges in a labour law violation case.
Meanwhile, Nurjahan Begum, the recently sworn-in health adviser and another accused in the graft case, was also acquitted.
The development came yesterday, three days after the council of advisers in the interim government led by Prof Yunus took the oath after the resignation and departure of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the face of a mass upsurge led by students on August 5.
Judge Md Rabiul Alam of the Special Judge’s Court-4 of Dhaka yesterday acquitted Prof Yunus, Nurjahan, and 12 others accused after the ACC applied with the court, seeking withdrawal of prosecution of the case under Section 494 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Amir Hossain, an ACC official working in the court, told The Daily Star.
Earlier in the day, the anti-graft watchdog approved the withdrawal of the persecution of the case after scrutinising an application submitted by the case investigating officer and other case records, Amir added.
A day before his oath on August 8, Prof Yunus, also chairman of Grameen Telecom, and its directors — Ashraful Hassan, M Shahjahan and Nurjahan Begum — also got acquittal in a labour law violation case in which they were sentenced to six months imprisonment and fined Tk 30,000 each on January 1.
On June 12, Prof Yunus, Nurjahan, and 12 others were indicted in the ACC case filed over the misappropriation of about Tk 25.22 crore of Grameen Telecom Workers’ profit participation fund. The court was also scheduled to record the statements of the witnesses.
On February 1, Investigating Officer Gulshan Anwar Prodhan, a deputy director of the ACC, placed the charge sheet before the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka.
On April 2, the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge’s Court of Dhaka accepted the charges pressed against the 14 accused.
On that day, the court also transferred the case to the Special Judge’s Court-4 of Dhaka for the next course of action.
The 12 other accused are Grameen Telecom Managing Director Nazmul Islam, Directors Ashraful Hassan, Naznin Sultana, Parvin Mahmud, M Shahjahan and SM Huzzatul Islam Latifee, Sramik-Karmachari Union President Kamruzzaman, General Secretary Firoz Mahmud Hasan and representative Mainul Islam, Jatiya Workers Federation Office Secretary Kamrul Hasan, and lawyers Zafrul Hasan Sharif and Yusuf Ali.
On May 30 last year, Gulshan Anwar filed the case with the ACC’s integrated district office in Dhaka.