Yunus is chairman of GC, did not attend the hearing because he was in abroad. The chief executive officer and a senior manager at the company appeared at the court and secured bai
Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel for economics in 2006, failed to appear at a court hearing over the sacking of workers at a company he heads (Photo: AFP)
A Dhaka court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant against Nobel laureate and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus after he failed to appear in person before it in a case of an alleged labour law violation.
Yunus is chairman of GC, did not attend the hearing because he was in abroad. The chief executive officer and a senior manager at the company appeared at the court and secured bail, Nuruzzaman said.
“He (Yunus) left Bangladesh before receiving any summons for appearing before the court. As soon as he returns, an appropriate legal step shall be taken,” Yunus’s lawyer Kazi Ershadul Alam told AFP.
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On July 10, the Dhaka 3rd labour court — which was hearing a case of the sacking of three employees of Grameen Communications, the IT wing of Grameen Bank — ordered Yunus and two others to appear before it on October 8. Yunus is the chairman of Grameen Communications.
“Though the two senior officials of the Grameen Communications appeared before the court, Yunus failed to turn up, following which the chairman of the court, Rohibul Islam, issued the arrest warrant against him,” a court official said.
The court granted bail to the two company officials who appeared before it, he said.
Three former employees of the Grameen Communications have filed criminal cases against the company management after they were sacked in June for their role in the formation of the trade union at their workplace.
The 79-year-old economist has been at odds with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina since 2007 when he made a brief foray into the country’s violent and polarised politics dominated by her family and her arch-rival Khaleda Zia.
Yunus was removed in 2011 as head of the micro-lender Grameen Bank that he founded, a move widely seen as orchestrated by PM Hasina.
Yunus set up the Grameen Bank in 1983 to make collateral-free micro-loans to rural and mostly women entrepreneurs. Its record in helping to reduce poverty earned him global fame and a Nobel Peace Prize.
(With Agencies inputs)
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