In what is certainly one of the more eye-grabbing events in the past few months, in late September this year a lawsuit was filed against more than 40 people at the Senior Judicial Magistrates’ Court (Laxmipur). The accused allegedly contributed towards ‘abusive and derogatory content’ against current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her father, Bangabandhu, father of the nation and former Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. According to our court correspondent, the said denigrating content was published in an online news media outlet called ‘The Daily Nobojug’. The case (477/2021) was filed late September 2021 and was considered by Senior Judicial Magistrate (In-Charge) Md Belayet Hossain who has referred to the Police Super of Kamalnagar Police Station for further investigation.

This incident appears to be precisely the reason why Digital Security Act 2018 was brought into force. These kinds of miscreants otherwise would run rampant with impunity.

The complainant, Ridoy Kazi, states that the accused have, “deliberately and without remorse, gone about besmirching the name of our founding father Bongobandhu and his daughter, our current revolutionary leader Prime Minister Hasina. We need to stand up to these bullies who use the free press and online media outlet to spread false rumours and propaganda against the honourable men and women who have ruled and currently rule our country.” The plaintiff also had a few choice words for the accused but we have omitted them in the interest of keeping this space clean for our readers.

Some of the accused are –

Esrat Rashid (36, Editor, The Daily Nobojug), Johnny Joseph de Costa (32, Assistant Editor, Daily Nobojug), Nurul Huda (29, Senior Assistant Editor, Daily Nobojug), Md Tofail Hossain (Senior Advisor, Daily Nobojug), Ali Amin (39, Publisher, Daily Nobojug), Peerzada Tanvir Ahmed (24), Mohammad Shahidul Islam Jaigirdar (36), Md. Abdul Razzak (28), Md. Masum Sajjad (32), Ariful Haque Arif, Md Jakir Hossain (29), Md Razim Hossain (30), Shiplu Kumar Barmon (42), Musa Ahmed Jaigerder (31), Romana Akter Rumki (30), Mohammad Zillur Rahman, Mukit Chowdhury (34), Abu Sayed (25), Md. Al-Amin Kaisar (31), Md Maraz Miah (28), Md Shaim (20), Shahriar Md. Nafis Khan (32), Ahsanul Huda Sarker (47), Shamim Al Mamun (32), Ahsanul Kabir (35), Samiuzzaman Siddique (40), Md Sabbir Hossain (30), Md Zahirul Islam (33), Al Mahfuz (24), Md Obaidur Rahman Khan, Md. Arath Hossain Rony (29), Umma Kulsum Nargis Banu (39), Nurul Farooq Shaker (35), Mohammed Nizamul Haque (47). , Mohammad Fahidul Alam, Md Kanzid Hasan, Md Ashif Hossain amongst others.

As our readers can probably imagine, it was difficult to get a hold of the accused at all. Our correspondent managed to track down some of them, but it appears that they are currently residing abroad. The next date for the matter is set in December 2021.