HC scraps six cases against Prof Yunus

The High Court has scrapped the proceedings of six cases, including five filed under Bangladesh Labour Act, against Chief Adviser Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus and others.
The High Court bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain passed the order on October 24 after hearing separate petitions. Full texts of the verdicts were released on Thursday.
Md Emranul Haque, a former employee of Grameen Communications, an entity owned by Prof Yunus, and four others filed the five cases at the 3rd Labour Court in Dhaka. Another case was filed in Mymensingh.
Md Emranul Haque in consultation with his co-workers decided to form a trade union and applied for the registration of the union, "Grameen Communications Sramik Karmachari Union" on April 16 in 2019. However, the application was turned down.

The authorities of the Grameen Communications being angered by such activities by the complainant issued a letter on June 18 the same year with immediate effect informing him that the term of his contractual employment was not renewed.
On June 23, he complained to the director general of the Department of Labour in this regard. Later the 3rd Labour Court in Dhaka took cognizance of the case and issued a summons against the officials of the Grameen Communications. Four other cases were also filed at the court following the same way.
Prof Yunus, chairman of Grameen Communications, and Nazneen Sultana, managing director, appeared before the Labour Court on October 9 in 2019 and got bail.
Subsequently, Prof Yunus and Nazneen Sultana filed five separate petitions with the High Court seeking cancellation of the cases.
On the other hand, Advocate Nazrul Islam Chunnu, joint secretary general of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal's Mymensingh unit, filed the other case against Prof Yunus at a Mymensingh court in 2011 on charges of defamation. Later a quashment petition was filed against the defamation case and upon hearing, the HC scrapped the proceedings of the case.
Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud and Barrister Mustafizur Rahman appeared on behalf of Prof Yunus, while Deputy Attorney Generals Md Jasim Sarker and Rasel Ahmmad represented the state.
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