Odhikar's Adilur, Elan get HC bail

The High Court today granted bail to Odhikar Secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and Director ASM Nasiruddin Elan in a case filed under the ICT Act, in which they were sentenced to two years' imprisonment by a trial court.

The bench of Justice Md Emdadul Haque Azad passed the order following a petition filed by Adilur and Elan seeking bail in the case.

The two were sued for running "a distorted report and doctored images" on the police action at a Hefajat-e-Islam rally on May 5-6, 2013, in the capital's Motijheel.

A Dhaka court on September 14 this year delivered the verdict against Adilur and Elan, cancelled their bail and ordered to send them to jail with conviction warrants.

It also fined each of them Tk 10,000 in default of which they would have to serve one more month in jail.

On June 10, 2013, the Detective Branch of police filed a general diary with Gulshan Police Station in this connection, which was later converted into a case.

Detectives arrested Adilur from Gulshan on August 10, 2013, shortly after filing the GD, which said the rights body on its website ran a false report titled "Assembly of Hefajat-e Islam Bangladesh and Human Rights Violation".

"The report tarnished the images of the country, the government, and the law enforcement agencies," read the GD.

Odhikar's report claimed that 61 people died in the wee hours of May 6 when the law enforcers flushed several thousand Hefajat activists out of the Shapla Chattar in the capital's Motijheel.

The government put the number of deaths at 13.

On August 11, 2013, police raided Odhikar's Gulshan office and seized three laptops and two desktop computers.

After probing the case, the DB on September 4, 2013, pressed charges against Adilur and Elan.