BartaBangla Desk :: The authorities of Grameenphone (GP), Bangladesh’s leading mobile operator, have apologised to a client for changing his package from “Nishchinto” to “Business Solution Package-3” without his consent. Hundreds of clients are said to be facing similar problems. The apology was offered soon after the filing of two cases by the client — senior judicial magistrate of the Comilla Amali Court-4 Muhammad Sazzad Hossain — on September 3, advocate Sabbir A Mukim, counsel for the plaintiff, told The Independent yesterday. “GP sent two representatives to the plaintiff soon after the filing of the cases and offered him unconditional apology for committing the error,” he said. Later, the cases – one criminal and another civil– were withdrawn in response to a compromise petition filed by the petitioner, advocate Sabbir added. Magistrate Md Shafikul Islam of the Joint District Judge’s Court-1 of Comilla on Monday and Tuesday passed the withdrawal order following the compromise petition, advocate Sabbir said. “Plaintiff Sazzad made the compromise petition after his previous package was reinstated and the money returned.” “Two representatives of the mobile operators met me and said sorry categorically for changing my package without my consent. They also assured me of returning my money to my account, which was charged for changing the package,” judge Sazzad said in his compromise petition.

The petition also said that the mobile operator has taken steps to mitigate his problem quickly. Hence, he will not run the cases against the operator, the petition added. BTRC Chairman Sunil Kanti Bose, telecommunications secretary Md Faizur Rahman Chowdhury and Grameenphone CEO Vivek Sood were named as defendants in one case and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) was also made accused. The plaintiff said the case he filed under the Criminal Procedure Code at Comilla senior Judicial Magistrate’s Court accused GP of “fraud” and “breach of trust”. He demanded Tk 1 million in damages in the civil case he filed with Joint District Judge’s Court-1.

Magistrate Hossain said the plaintiff used his GP pre-paid connection uninterruptedly after he bought it on August 23, 2004. He registered the SIM against his name on December 13, 2007 in line with the government order. He accepted the “Nishchinto” offer on March 7 this year, which was changed to “Business Solution Package-3” on March 25. Grameenphone charged him an additional Tk. 6,000 for calls and SMS, the magistrate said. GP is a joint venture between Telenor (55.8%), the largest telecommunications service provider in Norway with mobile phone operations in 12 other countries, and Grameen Telecom Corporation (34.2%), a non-profit organisation of Bangladesh. The other 10 per cent shares belong to retail and institutional investors.