Prothom Alo journalist Samsuzzaman granted bail in another DSA case
Prothom Alo journalist Samsuzzaman has been granted bail in a case filed against him under the Digital Security Act (DSA) with Tejgaon police station.
The chief metropolitan magistrate (CMM) court passed the order on Sunday. Prasanta Karmaker, the lawyer of Samsuzzaman, confirmed the matter to Prothom Alo.
Lawyers Prasanta Karmaker and Ehsanul Haque Samaji stood for Samsuzzaman in the hearing. Earlier, he walked out of prison on bail on 3 April in the DSA case filed against him at Ramna police station.
Samsuzzaman was brought to the CMM court on 30 March. Later Ramna police station appealed for sending him to the jail. Samsuzzaman's lawyer Proshanta Karmakar filed a petition with the court seeking bail. After hearing, the court ordered to send him to jail rejecting his bail prayer.
On the day, Samsuzzaman was taken to Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj from the court. On the following day, he was taken to Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur from the Dhaka Central Jail. On Saturday, he was again shifted to Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.
A team of around 14-15 people went to the house of Samsuzzaman near Jahangirnagar University in Savar at around 4:00 am on 29 March. They identified themselves as members of police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), searched the room of Samsuzzaman and seized his laptop, two mobile phones, and a portable hard disk. Later, they picked Samsuzzaman up from his residence.
Around 20 hours after picking the journalist up from his residence, a case was filed before filing of the case at Ramna police station in the capital under Digital Security Act on 31 March night.
Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman was made the chief accused in the case filed by lawyer Abdul Malek (Mashiur Malek). He got six weeks anticipatory bail from the High Court in the case on Sunday.
A ‘graphic card’ was prepared with contents from a report of Prothom Alo Online for sharing in its Facebook page on 26 March. The card used a quote of day labourer Zakir Hossain. It used a photograph of a child, Sabuj, who was waiting outside of the closed gate of National Mausoleum in Savar.
The original report had a quote of the child as well. Both the quotes of the child and day labourer Zakir were separately placed in the original report. But Prothom Alo took down the ‘graphics card’ quickly from its Facebook page apprehending it would give birth to confusion among the readers. A note of correction was also published below the online report.
In connection with this, a Jubo League leader Syed Md. Golam Kibria filed a case with Tejgaon police station in Dhaka at 2:15 am on Wednesday. Jubo League is the youth wing of ruling Bangladesh Awami League. He was also a member of the central committee of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling party.