Embezzlement case: High Court dismisses revision application of Dr Yunus

The High Court has dismissed Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus‍‍`s revision application challenging the legality of framing charges against him and his co-accused in a case of embezzlement of benefits of employees and workers.

The Court has directed the trial court to complete the trial of the case within one year.

The High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukdar and Justice Kazi Ebadoth Hossain issued the order on Wednesday (July 24th) after hearing Yunus‍‍`s application to annul the order forming the allegation in this case.

Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun appeared for Yunus in court. Lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan appeared for the plaintiffs. Attorney General AM Amin Uddin and Deputy Attorney General AKM Amin Uddin Manik represented the state. The plaintiffs‍‍` lawyers stated that today‍‍`s order allowed the case against Yunus and seven others to proceed.

On June 12, a case was filed against Yunus and 14 others. The Special Judge‍‍`s Court-4 of Dhaka issued this order. Later, on July 8, Yunus applied to the High Court to annul the order forming the allegation. Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun filed the application.

Contextually, in the case of embezzlement allegations involving employees of Grameen Telecom, a case was filed at the Dhaka Divisional Special Judge‍‍`s Court on May 30, 2023. It is stated in the complaint that following the decision of the 108th Board of Directors meeting on May 9, 2022, an account was opened at Gulshan Branch of Dhaka Bank.

However, the account was opened one day earlier than the actual date. Settlement agreements were reached between Grameen Telecom Employees Union and Grameen Telecom for the distribution of employees‍‍` benefits on April 27 of that year. According to the settlement agreement, on May 8, 2022, an amount of Tk 437,121,621 was transferred from United Commercial Bank‍‍`s Mirpur Branch to Dhaka Bank‍‍`s Gulshan Branch.

Later, according to the decision of the 109th Board meeting, an additional amount of BDT 106,391,389 was approved as advocate fees. On the other hand, a total of BDT 260,227,880 was transferred in three installments from Grameen Telecom Employees Union‍‍`s Dutch Bangla Bank account to the local office account of Dutch Bangla Bank‍‍`s Mirpur Branch in the names of Advocate M Yusuf Ali, Standard Chartered Bank‍‍`s Gulshan North Branch on behalf of Advocate Zafarul Hasan Sharif and Advocate M Yusuf Ali. All these amounts were transferred without informing the employees about the distribution of benefits.

According to ACC’s records, only Tk 1 crore has been transferred as actual advocate fees. The remaining Tk 252,267,880 has been embezzled from Grameen Telecom with the assistance of CB leaders, lawyers M Kamruzzaman, Mainul Islam, and Firoz Mahmud Hasan‍‍`s Dutch Bangla Bank Mirpur Branch accounts in May and June 2022.

Similarly, Tk 4 crore was transferred as advocate fees in the name of lawyer M Yusuf Ali‍‍`s Commercial Bank of Sylhet‍‍`s Dhanmondi Branch account, Tk 5 crore from Gulshan Branch of City Bank and jointly transferred to Standard Chartered Bank‍‍`s Gulshan North Branch account of lawyers Zafarul Hasan Sharif and lawyer M Yusuf Ali, which was not received by them.