A journalist has been arrested in Khulna in a case filed under the Digital Security Act for publishing “false” information on the number of votes cast in a constituency during Sunday's polls.

Hedayet Hossain Mollah, local correspondent of the Dhaka Tribune, was arrested yesterday, a day after the case was filed against two reporters, including him, with Batiaghata Police Station in the district.

The other accused is Rashidul Islam, staff reporter of the daily Manab Zamin, reports our correspondent in Khulna.

According to the initial announcement of the election results, the number of votes cast in Khulna-1 was higher than the total number of voters in the constituency. As the matter was brought to the returning officer's attention, he said it was a mistake and later came up with a correction, said local journalists.

By the time the correction could be made, the two media outlets ran reports saying the number of votes cast was around 22,000 higher than the actual number of voters, they said.

Documents provided by the returning officer's office showed 45,000 of the 2,59,420 voters did not cast their ballots.

Batiaghata Upazila Nirbahi Officer Debashish Chowdhury, also the assistant returning officer, filed the case against the two journalists.

The case statement said the accused published false, fabricated and provocative information on the voting with the use of electronic devices, including laptops, which might confuse people and create a chaotic situation.

Such activities made the “fair election” questionable, the statement said.

Mahabubur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Batiaghata Police Station, told The Daily Star that they arrested Hedayet near Gallamary Bridge in connection with the case.

However, several witnesses said the journalist was picked up near Picture Palace intersection in the city when he was returning home from the Khulna Press Club.

Hedayet's wife Sayida Laila Akhter told this newspaper that she called her husband over the phone but another man picked it up and introduced himself as the OC of the police station.

“Last night, the returning officer had requested my husband to apologise for the news. Otherwise, he said my husband would face action,” she said.

Despite repeated attempts, the RO could not be reached over the phone for comments.

Handcuffed, Hedayet was produced before a district court which sent him to jail.

Meanwhile, a former deputy secretary of the Election Commission has been picked up by detectives in the city's Agargaon area for “leaking information on the election”.

Shamsul Alam was allegedly collecting election results submitted to the commission from across the country and sending those to “others”, said police and EC sources.

He was picked up near the Nirbachan Commission office on Monday night, they said.

GG Biswas, officer-in-charge of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station, said the official was kept at the DB office on Mintoo Road.

Abdul Baten, additional commissioner (detectives) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said they picked up Shamsul for interrogation. 

Terming the 11th national election “farcical”, Islami Andolon Bangladesh (IAB) yesterday rejected the polls result and demanded immediate re-election under a non-partisan government.

“We are rejecting the election result as the opinion of the masses was not reflected in the polls. We strongly demand holding an immediate re-election under a non-partisan government,” said IAB Ameer Mufti Syed Muhammad Rezaul Karim.

Rezaul Karim raised the demand at a press conference held at the party's central office in the capital's Paltan area.

The Islami Andolon Bangladesh chief said they will launch a strong movement by creating national unity if the demand is not met. 

The party might unite with Jatiya Oikyafront for a united movement to press home their demands, the IAB chief added.

Rezaul Karim said if the media was allowed to work freely on the polls day, they would have been able to gather information of vote rigging in thousands of polling stations. 

“The nation did not experience such a farcical election in the last 47 years,” he added.

The Election Commission, police and the administration were also involved in the scheme to ensure victory of AL-led grand alliance across the country, he alleged.

Four university students remain missing since they were allegedly picked up by plainclothes men in the capital's Farmgate area on Saturday, the day before national election.

Their families yesterday held a press conference at Crime Reporters' Association Bangladesh, demanding safe return of the youths.

The missing are: Abu Khaled Mohammad Jabed, 25, a third year student of Bangla at Asian University; Borhan Uddin, 26, English student at Stamford University; Rezaul Khalek, 24, final year student of Pharmacy at Manarat University; and Syed Maminul Hasan, 27, former student of a Unani Ayurvedic Medical College.

“We are very anxious about their fate, as we have been out of contact with them for two days,” said Jabed's brother-in-law Yeasin Karim at the press conference.

He urged law enforcers to rescue the youths or to produce them before the court if they were detained for any crime.

Some plainclothes men identifying themselves as law enforcers dragged them out of a bus in Farmgate on their way home in Mirpur-1 after shopping at Aziz Super Market, Yeasin said quoting a friend of theirs who was also in the bus but escaped detention.

“We contacted local police stations and other wings of law enforcement agencies but all denied picking Jabed up,” he said.

The families drew attention of national and international human rights organisations to be vocal for their release.

Contacted, Abdul Baten, additional commissioner (detectives) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said they did not detain the youths.

Mufti Mahmud Khan, Rab's Legal and Media wing director also said they did not carry out any drive in Farmgate on that day.

BNP yesterday lauded the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) study over irregularities in the December 30 national election and said it was a “cause for heartburn” for both the government and the Election Commission.

“The government's ministers and the Election Commission have been failing to hide their faces in shame as TIB has unveiled the absolute truth about vote rigging,” BNP's Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed said yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference at the party's Nayapaltan central office in Dhaka, Rizvi said now their [the government and EC] efforts to conceal the truth has gone in vain as people are informed of everything that transpired the day before national election.

TIB, in its study on Tuesday, said electoral irregularities like stamping ballot papers the night before the polls and ballot stuffing by capturing booths on election day happened in 47 out of 50 constituencies that were surveyed at random.

Rizvi, also the spokesperson of BNP, said different international organisations have come up with reports on vote rigging in the December 30 national election while several democratic countries termed the election questionable.

“They did not recognise the fake election; they even demanded investigation into the allegation of vote rigging. World leaders have also described the election as the worst in history,” the BNP leader said.

Mentioning that people sacrificed their lives for the country's independence, Rizvi said they [people] will do the same, if necessary, for the sake of their voting rights and democracy.

The High Court (HC) today rejected a writ petition that challenged the legality of oath taking by lawmakers elected in the December 30 general election.

The court came up with the order saying that there is nothing illegal in taking oath taken by the lawmakers as they took charges of their offices on January 30.

The HC bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil passed the order.

Earlier on February 6, the court concluded hearing on the petition and fixed today (February 18) for passing an order.

On that day, AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon argued that oath taking by the lawmakers on January 3 was unconstitutional as the tenure of the 10th parliament expired on January 28.

“Therefore, there were two parliaments from January 3 to January 28 -- which is unconstitutional,” he told the court on February 6.

Attorney General MahbubeyAlamhad argued that as new lawmakers took charge on January 30, oath taking was not illegal.