A Dhaka court on Monday again asked the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of police to submit the probe report in a case filed against cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, and nine others under the Digital Security Act within April 15.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Abu Bakar Siddique passed the order after Md Afchhar Ahmed, a sub-inspector of the CTTC unit and also investigation officer (IO) of the case, failed to submit the report before the court on Monday, the scheduled day for submission of the report.
During the hearing, accused Minhaj Mannan Emon, managing director of BLE securities and shareholder-director of Dhaka Stock, was present before the court while Kishore and Didarul Islam Bhuiyan, an activist of a platform called “Rastrachinta,” were absent due being ill.
Didarul and Minhaj were granted bail in September last year, Mushtaq died in custody on February 25 and Kishore was granted bail on March 3 after languishing in jail for 10 months.
On May 6 last year, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) filed the case against 11 people, including Mushtaq Ahmed and Ahmed Kabir Kishore, with Ramna police station on charges of "spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government activities."
Swedish-Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil who runs Netra News, Hungary-based entrepreneur Zulkarnain Saer Khan, and US-based journalist Shahed Alam, were among others named in the case.
According to the FIR, Kishore was picked up on May 5 from his Kakrail home. It is mentioned that upon interrogation, he disclosed the name of Mushtaq who was then apprehended from his Lalmatia house on the same day. However, Mushtaq’s family alleged that he was picked up in the early hours of May 4.
Kishore and Mushtaq landed in jail after they were produced before a Dhaka court on May 6 last year. One of the charges against them is “tarnishing the image of the nation”.
On February 4, Police submitted a charge sheet against three of the accused, dropping the names of eight others. The three are: Kishore, Mushtaq and Didarul Islam Bhuiyan, an activist of a platform called “Rastrachinta.”
Later, a Dhaka court on February 10, ordered the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit to further investigate all the 11 accused in the case.
