RU journalist arrested, sent to jail in ICT case

A journalist at Rajshahi University (RU) has been sent to jail after he was arrested in a case filed five years ago under the Information and Communication Technology Act.

Manik Raihan Bappi, RU correspondent of Bangla daily Jugantor, was arrested from his residence in Shibganj on Friday in connection with the case, said Farid Hossain, officer-in-charge of Shibganj Police Station.

A Rajshahi court sent him to jail when police produced him before it yesterday, our RU correspondent reports.

Meanwhile, working journalists of RU today formed a human chain at the university's Central Library premises at 2:30pm, demanding immediate and unconditional release of Manik. They also demanded withdrawal of the case.

Photo: Collected

Kazi Jahidur Rahman, a teacher of computer science department at RU and then residential teacher of Shaheed Suhrawardy Hall, filed a case on October 24, 2015 against 16 newspapers including daily Jugantor under the ICT act following a report on allegation of seat allocation.

Bappi was then RU correspondent of 24bdtime.com, an online news portal. He was one of the accused in the case.

Matihar Police Station Sub-inspector Momin submitted a charge sheet in the case on September 29, 2019 after an investigation into the case.

SI Momin said that eight among the 16 accused were charge sheeted in the case.

Later, an arrest warrant was issued against them as they did not appear before the local court, he added.