‘Masud Rana’ and ‘Kuasha’ caught amid legal investigations

Masud Rana, one of the most popular spy thriller series in the country, has enthralled readers with around 500 books in the past decade. Though readers have known that these books are authored by Qazi Anwar Hussain, writer Sheikh Abdul Hakim filed a complaint to Bangladesh Copyright Office regarding their copyright on July 29, 2019. According to Sheikh Abdul Hakim, 260 novels from the Masud Rana series and 50 novels from the detective series Kuasha are written by him.

After over a year of numerous legal proceedings and investigations, Bangladesh Copyright office granted the judgement in favour of Abdul Hakim yesterday. While Qazi Anwar Hussain has authored the first 18 books in the Masud Rana series, the following 260 books published originally under his name have been authored by Abdul Hakim, but he was not given any credit in this regard. The complaint was filed against Qazi Anwar Hossain, the founder of Sheba Prokashoni, a publication house established in 1963, currently located in Shegun Bagicha, Dhaka.

While Sheikh Abdul Hakim has expressed his joy with this judgement, no response from Qazi Anwar Hussain or Sheba Prokashoni has surfaced so far. Being the initiator of Masud Rana, the branding and franchise associated with this spy-thriller series is credited to Qazi Anwar Hussain, according to Bangladesh Copyright Office's Registrar Zafar Raja Chowdhury. Nevertheless, the writer chose to remain silent while his lawyers took care of the legal affairs and also has not filed any appeal to the High Court Division of Bangladesh. However, Qazi Anwar Hossain can still file a plea in the next 90 days to challenge this verdict, Zafar Raja Chowdhury added.