A Dhaka court yesterday granted bail to the editor of the Prothom Alo, its publisher, a senior reporter, and a columnist in a defamation suit filed by Chief Whip Khondaker Delwar Hossain.

The daily's Editor Matiur Rahman, Publisher Mahfuz Anam, Senior Reporter Ashish Saikot and its Columnist Hafizuddin Khan along with their lawyers appeared before the chief metropolitan magistrate's (CMM's) court at 12:15pm and prayed for bail.

After the hearing, Metropolitan Magistrate Syed Mohammad Mujibul Haq granted them bail upon a bond of Tk 5,000 with two guarantors.

Moving the bail petition, the defence counsels told the court that the daily ran factual news but the case was filed as part of a conspiracy to harass the defendants.

Moreover, the charges brought in the complaint against the four were baseless and concocted, the counsels added.

Advocates Syed Ahmed Gazi, Kamruzzaman Mahboob, Ashraf Ul Alam, Chaitanya Chandra Halder, Mahbubul Haq, Emdadul Haq Lal, Samiul Karim Alamgir, Anwarul Kabir Babul and Shahidullah Miah moved the petition on behalf of the defendants.

The court also granted bail to former editor of the Jugantor Abed Khan, its Publisher Salma Islam and the Ajker Kagoj Editor Kazi Shahed Ahmed.

Chief Whip Khodaker Delwar Hossain on April 2 sued the editors of five dailies -- the Prothom Alo, Janakantha, Sangbad, Jugantor and the Ajker Kagoj for running alleged 'defamatory' news against him.

In his complaint, Delwar said the Prothom Alo published a news headlined ''Chief whip took rice and pulse for his two residences from the parliament'' on March 13. The daily also published two reports on March 14 and 16 revealing that the chief whip alone spent the half of Tk 27 lakh entertainment allowances allotted for all the whips in the parliament for the last fiscal year. The complainant alleged that the news was fabricated and it was published to tarnish his image.

The Janakantha published a news item on March 14 headlined ''Now there are allegations against chief whip of corruption hard on the heels of similar allegations against his two sons''. The chief whip claimed that the report was run only to defame his reputation in the society.

The Daily Ajker Kagoj published a news report on March 15 under the headline ''Father and sons in the gossip''. The complainant alleged that the story tarnished his image in his political circle. The Daily Jugantor ran another report on March 14 with the headline ''Chief whip's direction to send rice and pulse to his residence creates a stir''. Delwar claimed that this report was also false.

The chief whip also slammed the Daily Sangbad for a news item it published on March 18 under the headline ''Hot spices for the rotten parliament''.

Meanwhile, another Dhaka court yesterday exempted Matiur Rahman and Mahfuz Anam from attendance in person in another defamation suit filed on June 11, 2003 by Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, parliamentary adviser to the prime minister.

Metropolitan Magistrate Shafique Anwar passed the order following a hearing of the petition that had been filed by defence lawyers on July 22, 2003.