The High Court has rejected a writ petition seeking action against police officials responsible for spreading personal pictures of Shipra Debnath, a crew member of slain Major (retd) Sinha Md Rashed Khan, on Facebook.
The High Court bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam passed "not pressed rejected" order on the writ petition after a hearing on Thursday.
Petitioner’s counsel Manoj Kumar Bhowmick said that he pleaded to the court to reject the petition, considering that it was not presented before the bench as it was not convincing for passing any order to take action against the police officers.
The judges said that there was an alternative way to get remedy from the lower court, he said before adding “We may move another High Court bench with the same petition after discussing it with Shipra.”
On August 16, Bhowmick filed the writ seeking action against two senior police officers.
According to the it, Satkhira's Superintendent of Police (SP) Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman on August 14 shared Shipra’s personal photographs on Facebook along with provocative comments, casting doubt on her innocence.
Later, a similar post with photos was made by SP Mohammad Mizanur Rahman Shelley of the Police Bureau of Investigation's Dhaka Metro South unit, in which he also tried to justify the case filed against Shipra.
Apart from them, her family members told reporters, several other individuals had made similar posts on Facebook, questioning her character.
Also Read- Shipra walks out of prison on bail
Bangladesh’s Digital Security Act (DSA) Section 29 (1) strictly mentions that if a person commits an offence of publication or broadcasts defamatory information as described in Section 499 of the Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860) on any website or in any other electronic format, then they will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three years, or fines not exceeding Tk5 lakh.
DSA Section 29 (2) also says that if any person commits the aforementioned offence a second time or repeatedly, they will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment not exceeding five) years, or a fine not exceeding Tk10 lakh, or both.
Maj (retd) Sinha was killed in police shooting at the Baharchhara police check-post in Teknaf, Cox’s ,on the night of July 31.
His older sister, Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous, later filed a case with the Teknaf Senior Judicial Magistrate Court over the killing against a number of policemen of Teknaf police station.
Shipra and Shahedul Islam Sifat, another companion of Sinha, were arrested after police filed separate cases against them. Sifat was released on bail last Monday.
Shipra was arrested in a case filed on charges of possession of liquor and marijuana. Shipra was later released on bail last Sunday amid widespread protests.
