Court denies remand for journo Siddiqur, sends him to jail

A Dhaka court yesterday rejected a bail application for journalist Siddiqur Rahman Khan, who was arrested on Thursday in a case under the ICT Act.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Maruf Hossain declined to hear the petitioner’s argument, saying that the court had no legal scope to consider the bail petition as per the law. The court, however, rejected a petition by the state that sought five days’ remand of Khan.

Instead, he was sent to jail and the court asked the police to quiz him at the jail gate, if needed, within the next five working days. Earlier, the police seized five computer hard disks from his office.
Fahima Khatun, a former director general of the Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Directorate, had filed the case under the section 57 of the Information and Communications Technology Act 2006, (amended in 2013) for publishing six reports in online news portal dainikshiksha.com. Khan in the editor of the portal.
Fahima Khatun, also wife of ruling party lawmaker Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury, complained that the series of reports published by the accused had defamed and tarnished ‘her image and that of the state’.  In his submission, Khurshid Alam Khan, a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court who moved for the accused, wondered why the state sought remand when, admittedly, a private individual filed the case.
“We are examining legal windows how we will fight in the High Court, challenging the section 57 of the ICT Act,” he said.

Court denies remand for journo Siddiqur, sends him to jail

A Dhaka court yesterday rejected a bail application for journalist Siddiqur Rahman Khan, who was arrested on Thursday in a case under the ICT Act. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Maruf Hossain declined to hear the petitioners argument, saying that the court had no legal scope to consider the bail petition as per the law. The court,however, rejected a petition by the state that sought five days remand of Khan. Instead, he was sent to jail and the court asked the police to quiz him at the jail gate, if needed, within the next five working days. Earlier, the police seized five computer hard disks from his office. Fahima Khatun, a former director general of the Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Directorate, had filed the case under the section 57 of the Information and Communications Technology Act 2006, (amended in 2013) for publishing six reports in online news portal dainikshiksha.com. Khan in the editor of the portal. Fahima Khatun, also wife of ruling party lawmaker Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury, complained that the series of reports published by the accused had defamed and tarnished her image and that of the state. In his submission, Khurshid Alam Khan, a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court who moved for the accused, wondered why the state sought remand when, admittedly, a private individual filed the case. We are examining legal windows how we will fight in the High Court, challenging the section 57 of the ICT Act, he said.