Court Correspondent :
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court of Dhaka ordered Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Kotwali Police Station in the capital to submit a report after investigation in the case filed by Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) Mostafizur Rahman Dulal of Special Judge Court-9, with this court on Thursday morning for publishing stories on the alledged corruption of Awami League during 2007-2008. Magistrate Snigdha Rani Chakraborty recorded the depositions of the complainant and passed the order in the afternoon to submit the probe report on March 28. The court asked the OC to assign an inspector-level officer for conducting the investigation under section 196 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) subject to permission of the Government.
The order of the court also says that considering the significance and sensitive characteristics of the incident legal action needs to be taken considering the accuracy of the complaint. The case has been filed under sections 123(Ka), 124(Ka), 500 and 501of the Penal Code.
The complaint said, with an heinous attempt to implement the prescription of an agency Mahfuz Alam through his edited the Daily Star tried to bring an anti-democracy force to power during the period of 1/11. Besides, they wanted to make the democracy of Awami League leader-less to fulfill their desire. The accused has made the politics of Bangladesh unstable through the publication of lies, concocted and deviated information and such yellow journalism,
A number of people are critical about the Daily Star for allegedly ‘backing’ the army-backed government, led by Dr Fakhruddin Ahmad and armed with sweeping emergency powers that curbed the media and rights of the people.
Meanwhile, a defamation case was filed against The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam in Gopalganj district on Thursday for similar reasons. Goplaganj unit, Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) organizing secretary Shariful Islam Munna filed the Tk 10 crore defamation case with the court of Judicial Magistrate Nusrat Jabin Nimmi.
Talking to reporters, complainant’s lawyer Shawkat Ali Shikdar said taking the complaint into cognisance, the court asked the Officer-in-Charge of Sadar Police Station to submit a report after investigation.
