High Court scraps 6 cases against Dr Muhammad Yunus

The High Court has scrapped six cases against Nobel laureate Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus, now the chief adviser to the interim government.

One of the cases was a defamation case filed in Mymensingh in 2007 and the other five were filed with Dhaka Labour Court at different times.

On 24 October, a High Court bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain delivered separate verdicts scrapping the cases after disposing of separate rules issued on conducting the proceedings in these cases, Dr Yunus' lawyer Barrister Mostafizur Rahman Khan told reporters today (21 November).

Barrister Mostafizur Rahman Khan said while announcing the verdicts in the cases filed with Dhaka Labour Court the High Court bench said the plaintiffs wasted the court's time by filing these cases. Not only that, but these cases were filed without following the proper legal process and that is why these five cases were dismissed.

On 17 January 2007, during an interview with a foreign news agency, Muhammad Yunus said, "Bangladesh politicians only do politics for money, there is no ideology here."

Angered by his comment, Mymensingh District Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal Joint Secretary Nazrul Islam Chunnu filed a defamation case in the Mymensingh court on 21 January of that year. When Senior Judicial Magistrate Mohammad Habibullah of Mymensingh District and Sessions Judge Court issued a summons in the case, Yunus appeared in the court in 2011, four years after filing the case and got bail by submitting a bond.

In 2011, he filed an appeal to the High Court to dismiss the case. On 24 October this year, the High Court finally scrapped the case stating the case was filed to harass Dr Yunus.

Meanwhile, on 3 July 2019, three former employees of Grameen Communications, filed a case against Dr Muhammad Yunus and three others at the Third Labour Court in Dhaka. The three others are Abdus Salam, Shah Alam, and Emranul Haque.

The same year, two other cases were filed with the Labour Court by two people named Hossain Ahmed and Abdur Gafur.

Dr Muhammad Yunus filed an appeal with the High Court in 2020 for dismissing these cases. At that time, the High Court issued a rule to dismiss the cases.

After separate hearings, the High Court dismissed these cases and gave its verdict on 24 October 2024.

Earlier on 7 August, the Labour Appellate Tribunal acquitted Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus in a case filed over the violation of the labour law and overturned the six-month jail sentence.

Besides, the tribunal also acquitted three other top officials of Grameen Telecom.

On 9 September 2021, Labour Inspector (General) SM Arifuzzaman filed the case with the Labour Court-3 of Dhaka against the four.