Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has been acquitted in a graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), marking his second acquittal within a week. The acquittal comes three days after Professor Yunus assumed office as the Chief Adviser of Bangladesh's interim government, succeeding former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who resigned following a student-led mass upsurge on August 5.
This development follows his earlier acquittal in a labour law violation case, in which he and several directors of Grameen Telecom were implicated, The Daily Star, an English daily in Bangladesh, reported.
Nurjahan Begum, who also faced charges in the graft case, is now serving as an adviser in the interim government.
Judge Md Rabiul Alam of Dhaka's Special Judge's Court-4 accepted the ACC's application to withdraw the prosecution under section 494 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as confirmed by an ACC official who spoke to The Daily Star on the condition of anonymity.
Just a day before taking his oath, Professor Yunus, who is also the Chairman of Grameen Telecom, alongside directors Ashraful Hassan, M Shahjahan, and Nurjahan Begum, was acquitted in a labour law violation case. The case, in which the accused were initially sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and fined Tk 30,000 each on January 1, was dismissed.
Graft Case Against Muhammad Yunus
The graft case against Professor Yunus and 13 others was related to the alleged misappropriation of approximately Tk 25.22 crore from Grameen Telecom Workers' profit participation fund. The case was formally charged on June 12, and the charges were accepted by the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka on April 2. The case was subsequently transferred to the Special Judge's Court-4 for further proceedings, The Daily Star's report stated.
The other 13 accused in the case included Grameen Telecom Managing Director Nazmul Islam and Directors Ashraful Hassan, Naznin Sultana, Parvin Mahmud, M Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum, and SM Huzzatul Islam Latifee, along with Sramik-Karmachari Union President Kamruzzaman, General Secretary Firoz Mahmud Hasan, representative Mainul Islam, Jatiya Workers Federation Office Secretary Kamrul Hasan, and lawyers Zafrul Hasan Sharif and Yusuf Ali.
The case was originally filed by Gulshan Anwar Prodhan, a Deputy Director of the ACC, on 30 May last year at the ACC's integrated district office in Dhaka.