Cyber Crimes Tribunal of Dhaka on Wednesday took cognisance of the case filed against Odhikar’s Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and its Director ASM Nasiruddin Elan under the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Act 2006.Judge AKM Shamsul Alam of the newly formed Cyber Crimes Tribunal took the charges into cognizance Wednesday. The judge also issued warrant of arrest against Nasruddin Elan as he is on the run in the case.
The Tribunal directed the authorities concerned to submit report about the arrest order on September 19 and produce Adilur Rahman before the court.
The Detective Branch (DB) Police Inspector and Investigation Officer of the case Ashraful Alam submitted the charge sheet of the case to Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court on September 4 and CMM Bikash Kumar Saha sent the case to the Cyber Crimes Tribunal the following day for trial.
The two accused were charged with distorting facts, presenting false evidence against the drive of the law enforcing agencies, distorting report photos with the help of photo shop and passing off someone alive and kicking as dead.
Odhikar, in one of its reports, claimed a total of 61 people lost their lives during the security forces’ drive in Motijheel on May 5 midnight. The drive allegedly aimed at displacing activists of Hifazat-e-Islam.
Later the Information Ministry sent a letter to Odhikar asking for a copy of the list containing information on those 61 people.
Odhikar, however, said it would only submit the list, provided several conditions were met. Police detained Adilur Rahman on August 19. Later, he was shown arrested on chargers of violating ICT laws.
The CMM Court granted five days to the police to interrogate Adilur Rahman, but the High Court halted the remand and sent him to jail. He was a Deputy Attorney General during the last BNP-led alliance government. – Court Correspondent
