Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Monday said that what Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus said on Sunday was incorrect.
He made the comment while replying to a question following Dr Yunus's claim that the government filed the case against him, not the workers.
Dr Yunus and three other officials of the Grameen Telecom were granted bail in a case filed over labour law violation on Sunday.
On January 1, the Dhaka Labour Court-3 sentenced them to six months in prison. At the same time, they were fined Tk30,000 each in a case filed on charges of violating labour law.
However, Dr Yunus said on Sunday that it was the government, not the workers of his company, who filed the labour law violation case against him.
"With due respect, I would say what he said is not correct. His employees were deprived of payment and they filed the case. In the process, they needed a permission from the labour department. The department gave them the permission," the foreign minister said.
On January 1, a Dhaka court sentenced Dr Muhammad Yunus, and three others to six months in jail over labour law violations.
The court also fined them Tk5,000 under one section and Tk25,000 under another, in default of which they would have to spend an additional 10 and 15 days in prison.
The labour court gave them one month to file an appeal in the High Court to challenge the judgement.
Dr Yunus was facing more than 100 other charges over labour law violations and alleged graft.
After one of the hearings, he told reporters that he had not profited from any of the more than 50 social business firms he had set up in Bangladesh, reports AFP.
"They were not for my personal benefit," Yunus said.
In August, 160 global figures, including former US president Barack Obama and ex-UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, published a joint letter denouncing "continuous judicial harassment" of Yunus.
The signatories, including over 100 of his fellow Nobel laureates, said they feared for "his safety and freedom".
On September 9, 2021, a case was filed by the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment against Dr Muhammad Yunus and three others for violating labour laws.
According to case files, the department noticed several labour law violations during an inspection at Grameen Telecom.
The violations include failing to permanent the jobs of 101 workers and employees, not forming a workers' participation fund and welfare fund, and failing to provide 5% of the company's dividend to workers.
