ETV chairman accused in another case
Detained Ekushey TV Chairman Abdus Salam was implicated in yet another case yesterday -- this time a rape case filed with Cantonment Police Station two months ago.
The lawsuit was lodged by the same woman who had filed the pornography case in which Salam was arrested near the private TV station's Karwan Bazar office on January 6.
With this, the ETV chairman has been accused in three cases.
Shakhawat Hossain, sub-inspector of Cantonment Police Station, told a Dhaka court that Md Shahjalal, ex-husband of the plaintiff, raped his estranged wife on several dates in September, and in collusion with Salam, he pasted plaintiff's indecent pictures on city walls.
Praying to the Metropolitan Magistrate's Court for Salam's five-day remand, he said the ETV chairman needs to be remanded to find out vital information about his involvement in the incident.
Salam's lawyers strongly opposed the remand petition, saying their client's name was not mentioned in the case, and that he was falsely implicated in it for harassment.
While filing the case, the plaintiff didn't mention that any other unnamed person was involved in it, they told the court.
They submitted a petition seeking Salam's bail and cancellation of the remand prayer.
The magistrate, however, rejected both the bail and remand prayers, and asked police to interrogate Salam at the jail gate in five working days.
Though Salam's name was not in the first information report, he was shown arrested in the pornography case filed by the same woman with Cantonment Police Station on November 26 last year.
A Dhaka court sent him to prison, rejecting his bail petition.
On Sunday, Tejgaon police filed a sedition case, accusing Salam of airing a “false, fabricated and instigating” speech of BNP leader Tarique Rahman on the TV channel.
The same day, he was placed on a five-day remand in the case in which Tarique was made the prime accused.
Salam was picked up several hours after cable operators, mostly loyal to the ruling Awami League, allegedly stopped transmission of ETV that had broadcast live Tarique's speech from London on January 5.
However, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu repeatedly said the government didn't stop ETV's transmission.
ETV Senior Reporter Sajed Romel said, “Our channel is not available in around 40 percent area of the country.”
Journalists and staffs of the TV channel would form a human chain at the Saarc Fountain this evening, demanding ETV chairman's release and the TV channel's uninterrupted transmission.
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