Defence lawyers for Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman earlier submitted a medical certificate regarding his admission to a clinic and sought extension of time.

Rejecting the petition, Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Shamsul Alam framed charges and issued the arrest warrants against Matiur Rahman and the daily's Publisher, Mahfuz Anam.

The court passed the order as the two did not appear before the court on three consecutive dates.

Defence lawyers Syed Ahmed Gazi, Anwarul Kabir Babul, Ashraf Ul Alam, Prasanta Kumar Karmaker and Chaitanya Chandra Halder submitted the petition saying Matiur Rahman has been suffering from acute disease and was admitted to a clinic where the doctors advised him bed rest at that clinic for over 10 days.

The lawyers also prayed time extension for Mahfuz Anam as he was very busy with urgent matters.

The lawyers for Abbas opposed the petition saying the statements in it are "false" and "baseless". So, the petition should be rejected, they argued.

After hearing both sides, the court rejected the petition, framed charges and set June 28 for trial of the case.

Abbas had filed the case against the two on February 2 for running a news item on January 5.

In his complaint, Abbas said the news item headlined "Public works minister has objection to a police complex being built at Rajarbagh" run by the national daily was false, baseless and concocted.

The news has tarnished his image and status in the society and created a bad impression of him among the people of the country as well as of his constituency, Abbas said. The news also led to a misunderstanding between him and the police department, he added.

Besides, the daily did not properly publish the rejoinder sent by the complainant.

The defendants appear to have connived to publish the report with an intention of bringing him into disrepute, Abbas said.

Following the hearing, the court took the case into cognisance and issued summons against Matiur Rahman and Mahfuz Anam asking them to appear before the court on February 16.