Contractor drags Nobel laureate Yunus to court for ‘threatening, not paying’

A contractor has taken to court Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who is Grameen Telecom Trust Chairman, for threatening him instead of paying for filling up 162 bighas (5355.37 decimal) of land in Savar.

Md Bahadur Islam Imtiaz, the owner of the M/S Taj Enterprise, started a case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court of Dhaka on Tuesday.   

Imtiaz, who identified himself as a member of the Jatiya Party’s central committee, also accused Grameen Telecom Trust CEO Ashraful Hasan, and officials Jahirul Islam Khan and Asadullah Dewan in the case.

He brought the charges under Sections 406, 420 and 506 of the Bangladesh Penal Code, which deal with criminal breach of trust, fraud and criminal intimidation respectively.

The maximum penalty is seven-year imprisonment and fines under the sections.

The contractor claimed he had signed an agreement with the Grameen Telecom Trust for the land-filling work in 162 bighas of land (1 bigha = 33 decimal) in Zirabo area in Savar.

He alleged the defendants were threatening him instead of paying him over Tk 68.5 million for the work even though a settlement was reached on the issue on Feb 11.

Metropolitan Magistrate Subrata Ghosh recorded the statement of the plaintiff and ordered the Pallabi Police Station OC to submit an investigation report on Apr 26, the court’s clerk Md Helal Uddin told bdnews24.com.

On Mar 30 last year, Imtiaz started a case with the Second Joint District Judge's Court in Dhaka, alleging he had not been paid 70 million for land-filling work of the Grameen Telecom Trust. The court later summoned Yunus and 11 other officials of the Trust in the case.

Grameen Telecom Trust was founded by Yunus in 2010 to 'implement and facilitate social business ideas'.