Suspended Jagannath University (JnU) student Tithy Sarkar went into hiding after staging an abduction drama in order to create diversion from the allegation of hurting religious sentiment, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has said.
Tithy was arrested on Wednesday evening from her relative’s house in Narsingdi in a case filed under the Digital Security Act, said Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Jamil Ahmed of CID's Cyber Crime Unit at a press briefing at its headquarters on Thursday.
Tithy went to Bagerhat with her boyfriend Shiplu Mallik on October 25, and later they got married, said the CID official.
They returned to Dhaka on November 9, said DIG Jamil adding that being tipped off, two teams of CID arrested Tithy from the house of Shiplu's relative in Madhabdi area of Narsingdi around 3:45pm and Shiplu was arrested from Kaptan Bazar area in the capital around 11:45am on Wednesday.
On October 31, CID detected that a post was being shared on social media mentioning that Tithy Sarker was rescued from the third floor of CID’s Malibagh office, with her hands and legs tied up.
“Actually, there was no such incident,” said DIG Jamil.
“On November 2, CID arrested Niranjan Baral from Rampura’s Banasree area on charges of spreading false news on social media,” he said.
During investigation, it was found that Tithty Sarker used her facebook account to post, comment and share "derogatory" remarks about a religion, he said.
“Sensing danger, Tithy filed a GD with Pallabi Police Station on October 23 mentioning that her facebook account was hacked,” said the official.
The CID said they will seek remand for Tithy and Shiplu in the case filed under the Digital Security Act with Paltan Police Station on November 2 for making "derogatory" comments about a religion on social media.
According to Tithy's family members, Tithy went missing on October 25 after leaving her Pallabi home for the local police station.
On October 23, some screenshots of Tithi’s facebook account making derogatory comments about Islam and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) went viral.
Immediately, students staged a demonstration at the university campus.
Tithy was suspended from the university on October 26,and she was as well suspended from her post as the office secretary of Bangladesh Chhatra Odhikar Parishad's JnU unit on October 23.
On October 27, her sister Smriti Rani Sarker filed a missing person complaint with Pallabi police station. Since then, the law enforcement agencies were looking for her.
