Facebook threat to AL MP: Tangail schoolboy Sabbir acquitted
The High Court today declared illegal a mobile court verdict that sentenced Sabbir Shikder, a school student of Tangail, two years’ jail last month for threatening Awami League MP Anupam Shahjahan.
The HC directed the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Tangail to launch a judicial inquiry on the basis of the statement given by Sabbir before it on September 27.
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The HC also directed the secretaries of public administration and home ministry and inspector general of police to withdraw Sakhipur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, also an executive magistrate, and officer-in-charge (OC) of Sakhipur Police Station Mohammad Maksudul Alam and place them outside Dhaka division “for fair investigation”.
The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das delivered the verdict after hearing lawyers from both sides.
The ninth-grader, who was sentenced by the mobile court reportedly under the Information and Communication Technology Act for threatening Awami League MP Anupam Shahjahan, appeared before the HC on September 27 following its suo moto rule.
Following a report published in The Daily Star under the headline “Boy jailed for FB comment about MP”, the HC on September 20 issued the suo moto rule and asked the UNO and the OC to appear before it on September 27 and explain why a schoolboy was sentenced to two years in jail under the ICT act over alleged threats made to a lawmaker via Facebook.
The HC also granted Sabbir, a student of Protima Bonki Public High School, bail and asked him to appear before it on September 27with relevant documents to ascertain his age.
Sabbir told the HC that, “I was at home on September 16. At 9:00pm, someone called me from outside. I came out and saw a man in plainclothes and a policeman. They asked me to go to the police station. They took me to the office room of the OC. The OC showed me a mobile phone and asked me what I had written. I said I did not write that. He repeatedly questioned me about it and I replied I did not write that.”
“The OC blindfolded me and beat me up at the police station and told me I would be put on crossfire. Fearing crossfire, I confessed I had written that [threatening the MP on Facebook],” said Sabbir Shikder.
He said the lawmaker had hit him and the upazila nirbahi officer kicked him.
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