Labour court grants bail to Dr Yunus

A labour court in Dhaka yesterday granted bail to Nobel Laureate Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus in a case filed over violating labour laws.

Dhaka 3rd Labour Court Chairman Rahibul Islam passed the order after Dr Yunus surrendered before it seeking bail in the case.

The same court also exempted Prof Yunus from personal appearance in the cases after his lawyer Mustafizur Rahman Khan submitted separate petitions.

But the court asked him to be present during the hearing on charge framing.

On January 5, Labour Inspector Tarikul Islam of Inspection for Factories and Establishments Department filed the case with the 3rd labour court against Dr Muhammad Yunus and three other top officials of Grameen Communications, bringing allegations of violating 10 provisions of the Labour Act.

The three other accused are Grameen Communications  Managing Director Naznin Sultana, Director Abdul Hai Khan and Deputy General Manager Gouri Shankar.

On January 13, the labour court issued the summons separately to each accused to appear before it on February 6.

On November 3 last year, the same labour court granted bail to Dr Yunus after he surrendered before it seeking bail in five other cases filed over sacking five employees of Grameen Communications.

On July 3, three former employees of Grameen Communications -- Abdus Salam, Shah Alam and Emranul Haque -- separately filed three cases with the court against Dr Yunus, Naznin Sultana and Khandaker Abu Abedin, alleging that they were sacked for participating in the formation of a union at work.

Two other staffers of the company -- Abdul Gafur and Hossain Ahmed -- were sacked on the same charges in July last year. They filed two more cases against the three on August 26.

Naznin Sultana and Khandaker Abu Abedin were earlier granted bail in five cases.