Grameenphone CEO, two officials get bail in fraud case

Grameenphone Chief Executive Officer Yasir Azman and two senior officials have been granted bail after surrendering before a Dhaka court in a case filed by a former employee alleging fraud and theft.

The trio appeared before the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Raunak Jahan Taki on Sunday to seek bail. The court granted their petitions following a hearing, according to defence lawyer Ehsanul Haque Shomaji, reports bdnews24.com.

The two others granted bail are Fazlul Haque, acting chairman of the Grameenphone Trustee Board, and Sayeda Tahya Hossain, the company’s chief human resources officer.

The case was filed on Sept 26 by Rakibul Azam, a former Grameenphone employee. The court accepted the case on the same day and issued a summons for the accused to appear on Oct 26.

Following the order, the three company officials surrendered before the court on Sunday morning. The hearing began around noon, with the accused standing in the dock as their lawyers argued for bail.

Defence counsel Shomaji told the court that the case stemmed from a “disputed contract”, saying the accused “respect the law and the court”.

“The plaintiff has also filed a similar case in the labour court, and the High Court has stayed those proceedings. The allegations of fraud and theft are baseless. The alleged contract does not even specify any monetary amount. These are senior officials performing key duties. The case was filed simply to harass them.”

Khorshed Miah Alam, a member of the Dhaka Bar Association’s ad-hoc committee, added: “The accused are respected individuals. Please take that into account when considering bail.”

However, the plaintiff’s lawyer Rokeya Akter opposed the bail petitions, saying her client was owed more than Tk 800,000.

“When he went to Grameenphone to collect his payment, they made him sign a Tk 300 stamp paper, saying they would issue a cheque later. But they did not pay him, and he has been seeking justice ever since,” she told the court.

With permission from the magistrate, Rakibul himself spoke, insisting that “this case has no link with the labour court proceedings”, adding that Grameenphone had “lost there and later secured a six-month stay from the High Court”.

After the hearing, the court granted bail to all three accused on a bond of Tk 5,000 each.

According to the case statement, Rakibul worked at Grameenphone from 2006 to 2021. Between 2010 and 2012, he was involved in disbursing funds from an outsourcing project among employees. He claimed that the company still owed him Tk 829,998. When he went to collect the payment in November last year, the accused allegedly took his signature on a Tk 300 stamp paper and sent him away without payment.

He alleged that the company then avoided repaying the amount despite repeated requests.

In a statement issued later, Grameenphone dismissed the case as “malicious and baseless”.