Mr. Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Robi Axiata, has filed a suit against the telecom operator, its board Chairman, and former group CEO seeking Tk. 227 crore in retirement benefits and damages for wrongful dismissal. Mr. Ahmed filed the suit on August 22 before the 1st Court of Joint District Judge, Dhaka, according to a statement issued by Ahmed’s lawyer Hassan MS Azim. So, the article contains Former Robi CEO Filed BDT 227cr Suit Against Robi.
On August 2, 2021, the former Robi CEO submitted his resignation notice to Robi from September 31, 2021, according to the statement. The board of directors of Robi unconditionally accepted the resignation notice by a letter dated August 5, 2021, just three days after his resignation. Subsequently, two days after receiving his resignation on August 7, 2021, Robi started a departmental proceeding by issuing a show cause notice on Ahmed regarding accounting transactions that had taken place in 2019, which Axiata Group and the Robi board were aware of.
Later, Robi dismissed Mr. Ahmed from his posts on May 22, 2022, about nine and a half months after accepting the resignation. It has been stated in the plaint of the suit that Ahmed continued to have challenges in dealing with the former Group CEO since becoming Robi Board Chairman, and later primarily on his long pending salary dispute, the lawyer said.
He was well supported by the current Robi Board Chairman, who has many conflicting roles in Robi and Axiata. He added that the allegation of accounting irregularities is entirely false, as evident from its Financial report for 2021. However, Mr. Ahmed was appointed as CEO of Robi as the first Bangladeshi to lead a significant private mobile network company in 2016. During his tenure, he led the merger of Robi with Airtel and the company’s listing on the stock market in 2020. However, he resigned from the post of Robi CEO in August 2021 before his term expired without mentioning any reason for stepping down publicly.
Axiata Group Berhad of Malaysia holds the controlling stake of 61.82% in Robi, while Bharti Airtel of India holds 28.18%, and the general public holds the remaining 10%. The company made its debut in the country’s twin stock markets in Dhaka and Chattogram on December 24, 2020, with the largest ever initial public offering in Bangladesh. However, a year after Mr. Ahmed’s resignation, Robi has yet to announce its new CEO. The share price of Robi ended today at Tk. 30 at the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
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