DSA violations: Police given 5 days to quiz cartoonist Kishore, 3 others at jail gate

A virtual court in Dhaka today gave Ramna police five more working days to interrogate four accused, including cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore at the jail gate in a case filed under the Digital Security Act.

The three others accused are writer Mushtaq Ahmed, an activist of the platform "Rastrachinta" Didarul Islam Bhuiyan, and businessman Minhaj Mannan Emon.

Ramna police can interrogate them for two days within five working days even though they prayed for 15 working days, court sources said.

Metropolitan Magistrate Dhiman Chandra Mondol passed the order as Md Jamshedul Alam, a sub-inspector of Ramna Police Station and also the investigation officer of the case, could not quiz them due to contracting the Covid-19 infection.

Earlier on June 16, another virtual court in Dhaka rejected both the remand and bail petitions for the four accused and allowed police to interrogate them at the jail gate for two days.

The four were arrested from different places of the capital in May and were sent to jail after being produced before two separate Dhaka courts on May 6 and 7 respectively.

Police also submitted two remand prayers for 14 days for quizzing them on May 7.

Eleven people -- including the four arrestees -- were charged with "spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government activities" under the Digital Security Act on May 6.

Swedish-Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil, who runs Netra News, US-based journalist Shahed Alam and blogger Asif Mohiuddin are also among those named in the case.