Police on Friday sought a five-day remand for Diplomatic Correspondent of the Daily Inqilab Ahmed Atique in a case filed with Wari Police Station under the Information and Communication Technology Act (ICT), 2006.
Sub-inspector Firoz Ali of the police station, also investigation officer of the case, submitted a remand petition with the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Eunus Ali Khan.
Meanwhile, the court fixed January 20 (Monday) for the hearing of the remand prayer following a petition filed by Atique’s lawyer Syed Ahmed Gazi.
The IO also prayed to the court to send two more accused — News Editor Rabiul Islam Robi and Chief Reporter (Current Charge) Rafique Mohammad of the vernacular daily — to jail without granting bail.
Earlier on Thursday evening, police arrested the Inqilab journalists and sealed off its printing press conducting a raid on its office in the capital’s RK Mission Road.
The raid was conducted after a case was filed under the ICT Act alleging that the daily published a fake and fabricated report on Thursday which tarnished the country’s image as well as the law enforcement agencies both at home and abroad.
The vernacular newspaper published the report titled ‘Assistance of Indian forces in the joint forces’ operation in SatkhiraD!’ in its Thursday’s issue.
Hours after the daily ran a report on the participation of Indian forces in the joint forces’ operation in Satkhira, police have launched a raid on the Daily Inqilab office at the city’s RK Mission Road on Thursday evening and held four of its journalists.
The detained journalists are News Editor Rabiul Islam Robi, Chief Reporter (Current Charge) Rafique Mohammad, Diplomatic Correspondent Ahmed Atique and Staff Reporter Afzal Bari.
A senior police officer said the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) along with Wari thana police conducted the raid following a search warrant issued by a Dhaka court.
The police officer, preferring anonymity, said the search warrant came after a case was filed with the Wari Police Station earlier in the day.
Sub-inspector Md Jahangir Alam filed the case under the ICT Act where he alleged that the daily published a fake and fabricated report on Thursday which tarnished the country’s image as well as the law enforcement agencies both at home and abroad.
The vernacular newspaper published the report titled ‘Assistance of Indian forces in the joint forces’ operation in Satkhira: Foreign Ministry’s denial’ in its Thursday’s issue.
Hasanuzzaman, a staff reporter of the daily, said the DB police started raid from 8:00 pm and continued till about 10:00 pm.
The law enforcers took away CPU and also sealed off the printing press of the daily, he said.
-UNB
