Singer Asif Akbar granted bail

Photo Courtesy: Kauser Ahmed

A Dhaka court yesterday granted ad-interim bail to popular singer Asif Akbar in connection with a case filed by lyricist Shafiq Tuhin over copyright issues.

Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Keshab Roy Chowdhury granted him bail until filing of a police report after Asif's lawyer moved a bail plea.

During the bail hearing, Asif's lawyer told the court that his client was implicated in the case as part of a conspiracy to harass him, adding that his client was not involved with the incident.

On June 6, the same court sent Asif Akbar to jail rejecting remand and bail petitions after Sub-inspector Proloy Roy of Criminal Investigation Department produced him before the court with a five-day remand over the case.

Before producing him at the court, a team of CID arrested him from his studio in Bangladesh Film Development Corporation area.

Composer and singer Shafiq Tuhin filed the case accusing Asif and four to five unidentified others of digitally pirating and selling at least 617 songs of various artists, including around 100 songs written by him, as mobile phone content without their permission, according to the case statement filed with Tejgaon Police Station on Monday last week under section 57 of the ICT Act and the Penal Code.

Asif, however, told the court that he was falsely implicated in the case as part of a conspiracy to harass him.

Shafiq also accused Asif of issuing threats, making abusive and false comments against him on Facebook live.

In the case statement, Shafiq, however, said he made a Facebook post from his account, describing the incident on June 2. Later, Asif made indecent comments and threatened him on his Facebook account.