A Dhaka court yesterday sent a National University (NU) teacher to jail after quashing a bail extension plea in a defamation case filed against him for allegedly making derogatory comments about the prime minister and her family in social networking site Facebook.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Tarek Moinul Islam Bhuiyan passed the order, after AKM Wahiduzzaman appeared before the court and pleaded for a bail extension.
Defense counsel Md Sanaullah Miah mentioned in the plea that the case was filed under a section which was bailable, and that his client did not make any defamatory comments about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her family members.
The petitioner, who was filing cases in the name of Jononetri Parishad, is among some people who are trying to bring themselves in the limelight, the defense counsel said, as he pleaded for a bail extension for the accused as the court could find the petitioner’s intention.
However, the court rejected the plea and sent the accused to jail.
On October 11, AKM Wahiduzzaman secured a one-month month bail from the High Court.
Earlier on August 22, Wahiduzzaman, an assistant professor of the geography department at Gazipur’s National University, allegedly posted a defamatory comment on Facebook about Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and daughter Saima Wazed Putul.
According to the case details, the NU teacher had allegedly posted a Facebook status that criticised the media’s portrayal of Sajeeb Wazed Joy as an “IT specialist” for only making several PowerPoint presentations, although Joy originally studied public administration. He also said the media portrayed Saima Wazed Putul as a “disability specialist” for rearing her own disabled offspring, and criticised the prime minister’s many degrees.
On October 8, AB Siddiqui, president of pro-Awami League organization Bangladesh Jononetri Parishad, lodged the defamation case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court.
On the same day, a Dhaka court issued an arrest warrant against him.
Meanwhile, on April 23 last year, AB Siddiqui also filed a general diary with Rampura police station against Hafizur Rahman Rana, a lecturer of Mechanical Engineering Department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), alleging him of issuing death threats to the prime minister on Facebook.
Later on June 27, a Dhaka court sentenced Hafizur to seven years’ imprisonment for issuing the death threat.
