Staff Reporter :
Counter terrorism and transnational crime unit (CTTC) on Sunday submitted a supplementary charge sheet against seven people, including cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, in a case filed on charges of spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government activities.
After completion of the investigation, Sub-Inspector Afsor Ahmed of the internet referral team of CTTC, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, and also investigative officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet against seven accused to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court.
Six others accused are Didarul Islam Bhuiyan, activist of the platform “Rastrachinta” ; Swedish-Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil, editor of Netra News; Minhaj Mannan Emon, managing director of BLE securities; expatriate Shamiul Islam Khan alias Zulkarnain Saer Khan; Ashik Imran; and Wahidun Nabi.
Sub inspector Md Nizam Uddin, General Recording Officer (GRO) of the Dhaka court confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune on Sunday.
The IO, however, dropped the names of three others accused due to lack of enough evidence against them in the case. They are US-based journalist Shahed Alam, Germany-based blogger Asif Mohiuddin, and Philip Schuhmacher.
On February 4, police submitted a charge sheet against three of the accused, dropping the names of eight others. The three were Ahmed Kishore, writer Mushtaq Ahmed, and Didarul Islam Bhuiyan.
Later, a Dhaka court on February 10, ordered the DMP CTTC unit to further investigate all the 11 accused in the case.
Mushtaq Ahmed, who was arrested in a Digital Security Act case, died at Kashimpur High Security Prison on February 25.
On May 6, 2020, Abu Bakar Siddique, assistant director of RAB-3 filed the case against the 11 people with Ramna police station on charges of spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government activities, under the Digital Security Act.
Kishore spent over 10 months in prison before getting out on bail on March 4, while Minhaj and Didar were granted bail by the court last September.
