Prof Yunus, 13 others seek discharge in graft case

Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus and 13 others sought discharge from a case involving misappropriation of around Tk 25.22 crore from the Grameen Telecom Workers' profit participation fund.

Judge Syed Arafat Hossain of the Special Judge's Court-4 of Dhaka will decide on the discharge petitions filed by the defence lawyers, said court sources.

Earlier in the day, ACC Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kazol placed his arguments in favour of framing charges against the accused.

After the prosecution submission, defence lawyer Abdullah-Al-Mamun started placing his arguments in favour of discharging Yunus and others. The submission continued till 11:30am when the report was filed.

On May 2, the court granted bail to them in the case.

The Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka accepted the charges pressed against the 14 accused, including Yunus, on April 2.

On that day, the court also set today for a hearing on charge framing and transferred the case to the Special Judge's Court-4 of Dhaka for the next course of action.

On February 1, Investigation Officer Gulshan Anwar Prodhan, a deputy director of the ACC, placed the charge sheet before the Metropolitan Senior Special Judge's Court of Dhaka.

The 13 other accused are Grameen Telecom Managing Director Nazmul Islam, Directors Ashraful Hassan, Naznin Sultana, Parvin Mahmud, M Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum, 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.