Nobel laureate Younus threatens to sue Norwegian telecom operator

Dhaka: Nobel laureate Professor Mohammad Younus has threatened to sue Telenor alleging the Norwegian telecom operator violated deals with Grameen Telecom in operating Bangladesh's largest cellular phone network Grameen Phone (GP), reports and officials said.

"The recent activities [of Telenor-controlled management of GP] in Bangla-desh leave me with little alternative other than to investigate the possibility of taking legal action," Younus said on Friday.

Younus, whose pioneering poor man's banking earned him the Nobel Peace Prize, accused Telenor of violating the deal, laundering money and breaching Bangladeshi laws in running the network's joint venture operations, the seventh largest in the global telecom sector.

Younus demanded that Telenor make public the investigation reports and shareholders' agreement.

Younus said Grameen Phone risked losing its lic-ence if reports of malpractices continued to do the rounds.

"We cannot allow Grameen's name to be tarnished directly or indirectly by inappropriate operations," Younus said in the statement distributed through PR Newswire.

Telenor, meanwhile, said that it hoped for an amicable solution to the row with Younus over Grameen Phone which it aims to list on the Dhaka bourse.