–Navalsang Parmar
A Dhaka court on Wednesday framed charges against Grameen Telecom Chairman and Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus and 13 others for allegedly embezzling Taka 25 crore from the company and laundering abroad. Judge Syed Arafat Hossain of Dhaka Special Judge Court-4 passed the order, scrapping a discharge petition filed by the accused.
Meanwhile, the court has fixed 15 July to take testimony from the witnesses, formally beginning trial in the case. Dr Yunus and other accused in the case claimed innocence during framing charges. They demanded justice to the court.
Dr Yunus, after being accused in a money laundering case, said on Wednesday that he is under constant humiliation. “I am not acquainted with the terms like money laundering, money embezzlement and fraud. Nevertheless, I have been accused of these. We are being subjected to harassment”, he said.
The nobel laureate further said, “We have spent our whole life for the service of the people. We have spent our own money to do that. This is our history. We don’t understand why we are being subjected to such serious harassment.”
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Law Minister Anisul Huq on Wednesday said that if a citizen breaks any law, the way he would have been brought to justice, Dr Muhammad Yunus’s trial is being held in the same way.
“But he (Yunus) is giving false statements, and these are humiliating for the people of Bangladesh,” the law minister told the media after coming out of a meeting with a delegation of the European Union (EU) in Dhaka on Wednesday afternoon.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) submitted the charge sheet in the case filed against 14 persons, including Dr Yunus, on 1 February.
According to the case documents, a decision was made at the company’s 108th board meeting, presided over by Dr Yunus on May 9, 2022, to open a bank account at the Gulshan branch of Dhaka Bank Limited. However, it was found that the account was opened a day before the decision was even made, reports Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS)
More than Taka 26 crore was transferred to the account on different
occasions, as per ‘fake settlement agreements’. But before even distributing
the share of the company’s profit to the workers, and letting them know, the
The accused embezzled around Taka 25 crore from the fund, reports BSS.