Case Against Kajol: Court fixes March 24 to decide on charges

A Dhaka tribunal will decide on March 24 whether to accept the charges pressed against photographer Shafiqul Islam Kajol who has been accused of circulating indecent, defamatory, objectionable and false information about several ministers, MPs and Jubo Mohila League leaders on Facebook.

After receiving the case dockets, Judge Mohammad Ash Sams Joglul Hossain of Dhaka Cyber Tribunal yesterday set the date, according to Shamim Al Mamun, bench assistant of the tribunal.

The judge asked Kajol to appear before the tribunal on March 24.

After a probe that took almost 10 months, Sub-inspector Mohammad Russell Mollah of the Detective Branch of police gave the charge sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka on January 27 in the case filed under the Digital Security Act (DSA).

Usmin Ara Bally, a central committee member of Bangladesh Jubo Mohila League, filed the case with Hazaribagh Police Station on March 10 last year.

According to the charge sheet, Kajol shared fake news on his Facebook page about the arrest and alleged crimes of expelled Jubo Mohila League leader Shamima Nur Papia.

The investigator wrote that Papia was arrested by Rab for her alleged involvement in different crimes and she was expelled by the organisation soon after her arrest.

On paper, Kajol was arrested on May 14 last year. On June 28, he was placed on a two-day remand.

Kajol also faced 53 days of enforced disappearance and spent seven months in prison. He had disappeared on March 10 last year and was "found" by the Border Guard Bangladesh roaming near Benapole border 53 days later.

He then landed in jail in the case filed under the DSA by lawmaker Saifuzzaman Shikhor, and two Jubo Mohila League activists over a Facebook post.

A lower court kept denying him bail for seven months, until the High Court on November 24 granted him bail in one case and ordered the investigation officer and the Cyber Tribunal to submit reports in the two others.

On December 17, the HC granted him bail in the two other cases after Kajol's lawyer pointed out that the probes had to be concluded within 75 days of filing of the cases, and the investigators had failed to do so.

However, the investigators have yet to submit the probe reports in the two other cases filed with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar and Kamrangirchar police stations.

These two cases were also recorded under the DSA in March last year.