Journalists form a human chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club yesterday demanding unconditional release of Probir Sikdar. A Faridpur court yesterday placed the newsman on three-day remand in a case filed under the ICT Act.
Some top cops in Faridpur threatened journalist Probir Sikdar, who lost a leg in an attack in 2001, that they would make sure that he lose the other leg, he told a court yesterday.
The senior journalist also alleged that he was tortured physically and mentally at the Faridpur Sadar Police Station and appealed that the court allow cops to interrogate him at the jail gate, his counsel Ali Ashraf told The Daily Star by phone.
The chief judicial magistrate’s court, however, placed him on a three-day police remand and fixed September 22 for next hearing.
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu and Awami League lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta described the arrest of the journalist “painful” and “shocking”.
Probir, 55, editor of Bangla daily Bangla 71 and online news portal u71news.com, was arrested on Sunday evening in Dhaka in a case filed under Information and Communication Technology Act for “tarnishing the image” of LGRD Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain.
“Police interrogated me blindfolding and asked me to say things in court that they taught me while in their custody,” Ali quoted Probir as telling the court.
The magistrate allowed Probir to speak after he raised his hand and sought the court’s permission to say something during the remand hearing.
“I had gone to the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station to file a general diary regarding the threats I received but police refused to record it,” Probir, who lost his father and several other family members during the 1971 war, told the court.
Three days after the police refusal, Probir uploaded the draft GD on Facebook where he said, “I place the general diary before people’s court.”
In the post, he expressed his fear that his life was in danger and that the LGRD minister, businessman Moosa bin Shamser and condemned fugitive war criminal Abul Kalam Azad would be responsible if he were killed.
Following the post, Local Awami League leader Swapan Kumar Paul, also assistant public prosecutor of the Judge’s Court in Faridpur, filed the case, saying the post “tarnished the image” of the minister.
On Sunday evening, detectives detained Probir from his office in Dhaka and later handed him over to the Faridpur police.
He was produced before the court first on Monday with a 10-day remand prayer. But the court sent him to jail and fixed yesterday for hearing. That day, however, there was no lawyer to defend him in the court.
During the remand hearing, plaintiff Swapan Kumar Paul’s counsels argued that through the Facebook post, Probir damaged the image of Khandaker Mosharraf and thus the government and the country.
Therefore, he needs to be interrogated to know if any other person or group is involved in this.
Two defence counsels — Ali Ashraf Nannu and Masud Rana — sought bail for Probir, arguing that the Facebook status was already public and no one else had been made accused in the case.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Hamidul Islam rejected the bail petition and placed Probir on three days’ remand.
On the court premises, Probir’s wife Anita Sikdar told newsmen that her husband was a disabled person who had to take eight to ten types of medicines for cardiac problems.
‘IT’S PAINFUL’
Suranjit Sengupta, a member of Awami League Advisory Council, said it was “very much painful” to see photographs of Probir being taken to court handcuffed.
“I don’t know why he hasn’t got bail. In my little knowledge of law, any crippled person, if he appears before a court, can be allowed bail,” said Suranjit, also chief of the parliamentary standing committee on the law ministry.
“It didn’t seem normal to us that he needed to be interrogated and taken on remand.
“Have the police and the detectives become so efficient that they came and took him [to Faridpur] on that very night? Is it the most important case?” he told a private TV channel yesterday.
Expressing deep shock over Probir’s arrest, the information minister told reporters at his secretariat office that his ministry would keep an eye so that Probir was not deprived of any legal protection.
PROTEST CONTINUES
Different journalist forums, socio-cultural and political organisations continued their protest yesterday, both on the streets and also on social media.
Journalists will stage a three-hour token hunger strike in front of the Jatiya Press Club today from 11:00am protesting the arrest.
In 2001, Probir wrote a series of reports titled “Sei Razakar” in Bangla daily Janakantha against some alleged war criminals, including a controversial businessman from Faridpur and now condemned war criminal Abul Kalam Azad, also known as Bacchu Razakar.
He was attacked in April that year following his write-ups. In the attack, he lost a leg and also mobility of one hand.
Source: The Daily Star
