The police have registered a case against Prothom Alo reporter Samsuzzaman Shams, who was picked up from his Savar home for interrogation, under the Digital Security Act.
Jubo League leader Golam Kibria filed the case at Tejgaon police station in the early hours of Wednesday.
Tejgaon Police Inspector (Investigation) Shah Alam confirmed the case but refused to talk about it.
A team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police picked up Samsuzzaman Shams from his rented house in Ashulia, Savar, at around 5am on Wednesday.
What plaintiff in says
In this regard, Syed Md Golam Kibria, the plaintiff in the case, told Dhaka Tribune that he went to the police station around 10:30pm. He claimed that the police accepted the complaint after sitting him for a long time.
He said: "I filed the case on Tuesday night only as a citizen and not out of any political motive or personal enmity. The wrong information published in the news and the matter about the child hurt me."
He added: "I think it is not right to write such news on Independence Day. It could have been written after two-three days. It can be written as prices are increasing. Common people are suffering and have to buy items at high prices. But such stories are not desirable in any way on Independence Day."
On Wednesday afternoon, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said: "If someone is aggrieved and wants justice, the police can take action accordingly after filing a case at the police station. As far as I know, a case has been filed.”
What case statement says
The Prothom Alo reporter spoke to people, including a child named Shobuj, on March 25, on the eve of Independence Day, and submitted a report on people's suffering due to price hikes. The report was published on March 26.
The news drew criticism as the newspaper used the child's photo with a quote from a 40-year-old labourer named Zakir, identifying the child as Zakir and not Shobuj.
At the same time, the child in the article later said that he was bribed by the Prothom Alo reporter for the photograph and he did not say that he was suffering without food and that without food in stomach, independence does not matter to him which was mentioned in the article.
“As a common citizen of Bangladesh, I am outraged that such false news is published and spread worldwide on Independence Day,” said Golam Kibria.
In this situation, the anonymous defendants including the named defendants have committed the crime of aiding and abetting the violation of the law by publishing and disseminating defamatory information including false information without permission, he added.
Prothom Alo withdrew the report within about half an hour and issued a correction later in the day, saying there had been an inconsistency between the headline and the accompanying photo. Alongside the news item, the newspaper had also posted a poster on its social media handle.
