A Dhaka Court yesterday discharged four journalists of the Daily Jai Jai Din, including its Editorial Board Chairman Syed Hossain Chowdhury in connection with a defamation case.
The court discharged the accused as the plaintiff did not attend before the court in a series of fixed dates in the case.
Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor passed the verdict.
The other discharged accuseds are acting editor Kazi Rokonuddin Ahmed, Publisher Abul Hasan Mohammad and its Rangpur correspondent Sebu Mostafiz.
Defence counsel Mahbububul Haque told the Dhaka Tribune that on October 27, 2010 Pirganj parliament member Abul Kalam Azad filed the case with the CMM court.
On January 13, 2013, the accused got bail from the CMM court after surrendering before the court, and they had been appearing before the court for a long time. However, the plaintiff did not appear before the court for any action.
According the case details, the daily published a report on October 4, 2010 that said after being elected as parliament member Abul Kalam Azad he misappropriated development work money and also took money from job seekers as hush money.
The plaintiff demanded that the report published was false and claimed that the accused defamed him.