The Food Court of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) yesterday granted bail to Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus in a case filed on charges of food adulteration.

The court passed the order after his lawyer Barrister Sara Hossain prayed for his bail in presence of Yunus, the chairman of Grameen Danone Foods Limited.

The court exempted Yunus from personal appearance following a submission to this end. The bail was granted upon a bond of Tk 10,000.

The Grameen Bank founder appeared before the court at the Nagar Bhaban in the city at 11:54am.

Food Inspector of DCC Kamrul Hasan lodged the complaint after DCC found 'Shakti Doi', a product of Grameen Danone Foods, adulterated in a laboratory test.

The Food Court recorded it as a case on January 10.

Kamrul Hasan said they collected samples from Arif General Store, at 49, Aga Sadeque Road on November 24 and laboratory test found the adulteration.

Yunus said the court asked him to appear before the court and he appeared it on the scheduled day.

"I prayed for my bail and I got the justice," Dr Yunus told reporters emerging out of the court yesterday.

Barrister Sarah said the complainant made Dr Yunus an accused in the case terming him “owner of the company.”

"He is not the owner but the chairman of Grameen Danone Foods Limited. He does not have any relation with its overall management," Sara added.

The charge brought against Dr Yunus is completely bailable, she said.

Barrister Sarah said, "We submitted two prayers -- one for Yunus's bail and another for exempting him from personal appearance in the court -- and the court granted both."

Abul Kashem, a shop owner, and Md Tusher, a dealer of Shakti Doi, have also been made accused in the case. They also appeared before the court with their lawyer Nirmal Kumar Das and also got bail.

The next hearing of the court will be held on February 23.

A social business joint venture The Grameen Group and Groupe DANONE joined forces since march 2006 to create Grameen Danone Foods Ltd, a social business based in Bangladesh. Grameen Danone Foods Ltd's mission is to reduce poverty by a unique proximity business model that will provide daily healthy nutrition to the poor of Bangladesh.