Photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol has been charged in another case filed under the Digital Security Act for his alleged involvement in circulating indecent, defamatory, objectionable and fake information about some ministers, lawmakers and top Jubo Mahila League leaders on Facebook.
After around one-year-long probe, Sub-inspector Mohammad Russell Mollah of Detective Branch of police, the investigation officer, filed the charge sheet with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court of Dhaka on March 14.
Sumaiya Chowdhury Bonya, a member of the central committee of Bangladesh Jubo Mahila League, a body of the ruling Awami League, lodged the case with Kamrangirchar Police Station on March 11 last year.
According to the charge sheet, Kajol published fake news on his Facebook account regarding the arrest and alleged crimes of expelled Jubo Mahila League leader Shamima Nur Papia.
The Daily Star obtained a copy of the charge sheet yesterday.
In the charge sheet, the investigator said Jubo Mahila League’s Narsingdi district unit general secretary Papia was arrested by Rapid Action Battalion for her alleged involvement in different crimes. Soon after her arrest, Jubo Mahila League expelled her.
The district Jubo Mahila League committee was also dissolved. At that time, Kajol circulated false information on his Facebook about that incident.
Kajol made a Facebook post with defamatory and false information, saying that the complainant (Bonya) was one of Papia’s accomplices “in her illegal business of women and drugs”, the charge sheet said.
He sent vulgar texts and pornography to various Facebook IDs, the charge sheet added.
Kajol also uploaded indecent, defamatory and objectionable information about the complainant’s husband Asaduzzaman Nahid, the investigation officer said in the charge sheet.
The photojournalist was also charged with uploading indecent, defamatory, objectionable and fake information about Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, AL General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, several other ministers, AL leader and lawmaker Amir Hossain Amu, others lawmakers, Jubo Mahila League President Nazma Akhter, its General Secretary Apu Ukil and several other female leaders and activists.
Kajol’s main purpose was to tarnish the images of the leaders and activists and extort money by uploading fake information, the charge sheet added.
On February 4 this year, SI Russell submitted the charge sheet in another case filed under the DSA before the same court.
Usmin Ara Bally, a central committee member of Bangladesh Jubo Mahila League, filed the case with Hazaribagh Police Station against Kajol on March 10 last year.
Kajol faced 53 days of enforced disappearance and spent seven months in prison. He had disappeared on March 10 that year and was “found” by the Border Guard Bangladesh roaming around the Benapole border after 53 days of his enforced disappearance.
He then landed in jail in a case lodged under the DSA by lawmaker Saifuzzaman Shikhor and two Jubo Mahila League activists over a Facebook post.
The lower court concerned kept denying him bail for seven months until the High Court on November 24 granted him bail in one case and ordered the investigation officer and the Cyber Tribunal to submit reports in two other cases.
Finally, the HC on December 17 granted him bail in two other cases after Kajol’s lawyer pointed out that the probes had to be concluded within 75 days of filing of the cases, and the investigators had failed to do so.
However, investigators are yet to submit the probe report in another case filed against Kajol with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station recorded under the DSA in March last year.
