Ragib Ali, son jailed for holding editorial posts illegally

A Sylhet court yesterday jailed industrialist Ragib Ali and his son Abdul Hye to one year each in a case filed for holding editorial posts of a local daily while being fugitives in two other cases.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Saifuzzaman Hiru also fined them Tk 5,000 each, in default of which they will have to serve one more month in jail, said prosecutor Mahfuzur Rahman.

Ragib Ali's lawyer Abdul Mukit Opi said the defence did not participate in the hearing, and they would go to the High Court for a "rational judgement".

On September 8 last year, Gias Uddin Talukder, a founding member of Chhatak Upazila Press Club, filed the case as the two were allegedly holding the positions of editor-in-chief and editor respectively of the daily Sylheter Dak, while they were absconding in two cases filed over grabbing of the land of Tarapur Tea Estate in Sylhet.

On February 2, the two were sentenced to 14 years in jail in one of the cases.

Ragib and his son were arrested in last November.