Staff Reporter :
A Dhaka court on Thursday rejected the bail petition of Rashtrachinta activist Didarul Bhuiyan and Dhaka Stock Exchange Director Minhaz Mannan Emon and sent them to jail in a case filed under the Digital Security Act.
Judge of the Metropolitan Magistrate Court of Dhaka, Rajesh Chowdhury, passed the order after rejecting a baily prayer placed by the police for a seven-day remand.
Sub-Inspector of Ramna Police Station Jamshedul Alam also the investigation officer of the case produced them before the court on Thursday with a prayer of seven-day remand for each.
The court, however, will hear the remand prayer after reopening of the court proceedings, said General Recording Officer of the cases of Ramna Police Station, Sub-Inspector Mohammad Nizamuddin Fakir.
Didarul was picked up from his house in the capital’s North Badda on May 5 evening. Another accused, Minhaz, had been missing for over a day before he was shown arrested in the case on Wednesday.
RAB-3 personnel handed both of them over to police on Wednesday evening.
Eleven people, including a cartoonist, two journalists and a writer, were charged for “spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government activities” under the Digital Security Act on that day.
Of the other accused, cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore and writer Mushtaq Ahmed landed in jail on May 6 after they were produced before a Dhaka court.
Swedish-Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil, who runs Netra News, US-based journalist Shahed Alam and blogger Asif Mohiuddin are among those named in the case filed by RAB-3 Assistant Director Abu Bakar Siddique with the Ramna Police Station.
The first information report said, “These people have been knowingly posting rumours against the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu, the Liberation War and the coronavirus pandemic to negatively affect the nation’s image and to create confusion among the public through the social media and cause the law and order situation to deteriorate.”
Tasneem was also charged for writing about the members of the Army and different law enforcement agencies, according to the FIR.
