A Dhaka court on Sunday granted bail to Nobel Laureate Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus and seven others in a case filed for allegedly misappropriating over Tk 25 crore from Workers-Employees Welfare Fund of Grameen Telecom.

Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge As-Shams Jaglul Hossain passed the order after hearing a petition submitted by the defendants upon surrender before the court, said Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Prosecutor Mir Ahmmad Ali Salam.

Though the prosecution opposed the bail order, the court finally granted it after hearing, said the defendants’ counsel Abdullah Al Mamun.

The court also set April 2 for accepting charges against the eight accused in their presence, said the ACC prosecutor.

The rest defendants were absent from the hearing in the court while it passed no order regarding them.

The accused included Grameen Telecom’s Managing Director Md. Nazmul Islam, Director & Former Managing Director Ashraful Hasan, Directors Parveen Mahmud, Naznin Sultana, Md. Shahjahan, Nurjahan Begum, SM Hujjatul Islam Latifi, lawyers Md. Yusuf Ali and Zafrul Hasan Sharif, President of Grameen Telecom Workers-Employees Union Md. Kamruzzaman, General Secretary Firoz Mahmud Hasan; Union Representative Mainul Islam and Office Secretary Kamrul Hasan.

On May 30 last year, ACC’s Dhaka district combined office-1 Deputy Director Gulshan Anowar Prodhan filed the case against 14 people bringing the allegation of siphoning off more than Tk 25.22 crore from the welfare fund.

Grameen Telecom owns a 34.2% share of telecom operator Grameenphone, Norway’s Telenor occupies 55.8% while the remaining 10% is publicly held.

As of December 2023, its subscribers span over 82.20 million.