The local election inquiry committee of the Election Commission has served a show-cause notice to Golam Sarwar, chairman of Comilla South Sadar upazila and younger brother of Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, for taking away a journalist’s mobile phone and attempting to snatch another’s in Lalmai upazila, Comilla.
The notice, signed by Senior Assistant Judge Rajeev Kumar Dev, chairman of the committee, was sent on Tuesday, ordering him to appear before the committee on Friday.
The notice says Golam Sarwar took part in the election campaign of Comilla-10 Awami League candidate AHM Mustafa Kamal, according to media reports and a letter from the returning officer.
At the time, he tried to grab the local Daily Amader Comilla correspondent Gazi Mamun’s mobile phone and took away local weekly Lalmai Barta’s Staff Reporter Kazi Ayakub Ali Nimel’s mobile phone while they were taking photos in the Hajatkhola Bazar area of Lalmai Upazila.
Sarwar apparently told journalists that they did not need to take so many photos and record videos, adding that photographers had been brought from Dhaka for that purpose.
“Your activities during the election campaign included acrimonious, rowdy behaviour and obstruction of media representatives… By doing so you appear to have violated the electoral code of conduct,” the committee told him through the notice, ordering him to explain his actions.
The returning officer formed a three-member investigation committee to look into the incident.
Additional Deputy Commissioner Salma Ferdous, the head of the committee, listened to Sarwar’s account of the incident on Tuesday evening.
