Pori Moni served legal notice demanding unconditional apology over court incident

A Supreme Court lawyer has sent a legal notice to actress Pori Moni, asking her to issue a written, unconditional apology for an incident that took place on the court premises on Thursday, 5 November. The notice asks Pori Moni to apologise within seven days.

Apart from Pori Moni, the notice was also sent to the president and general secretary of the Bangladesh Film Artistes’ Association. Supreme Court lawyer Khandaker Hasan Shahriar told Prothom Alo that notices were sent by registered post to all three this morning, Sunday.

The notice asks Pori Moni to refrain entirely in future from all forms of obscene language or dialogue, threats, obscene acting, gestures and dancing, as well as anything else that has no artistic or educational value.

Addressing the president and general secretary of the Bangladesh Film Artistes’ Association, the legal notice says they must issue a show-cause notice to Pori Moni and take necessary disciplinary action against her within seven days of receiving it. Otherwise, the person who issued the notice will take the necessary legal steps under the present laws.

The legal notice alleges that Pori Moni surrendered to the court and secured bail in a case filed by businessman Nasir Uddin Mahmud. That day, at around 11:40 am, as she got out of her car and headed towards the courtroom, a scuffle broke out between her security guards and journalists who tried to take photographs and videos of her.

At the time, Pori Moni snatched the mobile phone of a multimedia reporter from the newspaper Samakal. Security guards accompanying her also broke his tripod. Several media reporters were injured in the scuffle on the court premises that day. A plaintiff named Sujan Chandra Mani Das was also left injured. News reports said that he suffered a head injury and was bleeding.

Ensuring everyone's safety on court premises is the responsibility of the state and the administration. Therefore, no one is legally entitled to use a team of personal security guards to control the environment at a court or display physical force there.

According to the legal notice, Pori Moni later left the court premises. She then charged towards Samakal multimedia reporter Robiul Hossain, whose right hand is congenitally smaller than his left and has three missing fingers, leaving him unable to carry out normal activities with that hand.

Pori Moni hurled obscene abuse at him and openly threatened to kill him. Video footage of the incident has been broadcast by the media.

The notice states that such behaviour by Pori Moni towards a professional journalist is not merely an attack on his professional dignity; it also poses a threat to the environment necessary for independent journalism and the media to perform their duties. Such controversial conduct is in no way expected from a film actress like Pori Moni.