A labour court in Bangladesh on Monday sentenced Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus to six months’ simple imprisonment in a case filed on charges of labour law violation at Grameen Telecom.

The Dhaka Third Labour Court also awarded three other co-accused in the case the same punishment.

The court chairman, Sheikh Merina Sultana, handed down the verdict in the presence of Professor Yunus.

The other convicts are Ashraful Hasan, Nur Jahan Begum and Mohammad Shahjahan.

The court also fined Tk 30,000 each and ordered that, in case of default, the convicts would have to suffer 25 more days’ simple imprisonment.

The court, however, responding to petitions submitted by the convicts, granted bail for all of the convicts for one month.

Earlier, the court on December 24 set the date to deliver the judgement after the completion of arguments by both the prosecution and the defence in the much-talked-about case.

A total of four prosecution witnesses testified to the labour court in the case.

On June 6, the court framed charges against Professor Yunus and three other top officials of the company—Ashraful Hasan, Nur Jahan Begum and Mohammad Shahjahan.

On September 9, 2021, labour inspector SM Arifuzzaman of the DIFE filed the case with the Dhaka Third Labour Court on an allegation of labour law violation at Grameen Telecom.

According to the case, during a visit to the Grameen Telecom office, inspectors of the DIFE found that 101 employees who were supposed to be permanent were working as temporary staff members.

The DIFE also found that no profit participation fund was formed for the workers, while five per cent of the company’s profit was not provided to the workers as per the law.