A court in Barisal on Sunday quashed the much-talked about defamation case against upazila nirbahi officer Gazi Tariq Salman filed for publishing a ‘distorted photo’ of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the invitation card issued on the occasion of Independence Day.
Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Amit Kumar passed the order after the hearing on a petition filed by plaintiff Obaidullah Saju, a recently suspended religious affairs secretary of Barisal district unit Awami League, seeking cancellation of the case proceedings.
In his petition, Saju, also the Barisal Bar Council president, said after filing the case he realised that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s portrait was not ‘distorted’.
‘Even I was not aware that it (photo) was drawn by a child,’ he added in the petition.
Senior officials of Barisal division and district administration were present at the courtroom during the hearing.
However, Gazi Tariq Salman, who was transferred to Barguna sadar upazila from his previous work station Agailjhara upazila in Barisal after the incident, was not there during the hearing.
The portrait of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which was drawn by a child in a painting competition organised by the then Agailjhara UNO Salman on the occasion of National Children’s Day marking the birthday of Sheikh Mujib on March 17, was used in the invitation card.
Following the incident, Obaidullah Saju filed the Tk 5 crore defamation case against the UNO on charge of publishing a ‘distorted’ photo of Sheikh Mujib in the invitation card on the occasion of the Independence Day.
On July 19, Barisal CMM court sent UNO Salman to jail after he surrendered before it in compliance with its order and sought bail in the case.
Salman was granted bail on a bond of Tk 10,000, hours after he landed in jail.
As the incident sparked off huge public outcry throughout the country, Awami League suspended Obaidullah Saju on Friday for filing the case overenthusiastically.
Source: New Age
