Teacher sued under DSA remanded
A Dhaka court yesterday placed Ruma Sarkar, assistant professor of Begum Badrunnessa Government Girls' College, on a two-day remand for interrogation, hours after a case was filed against her on the charge of spreading provocative speeches and false videos on Facebook.
She was detained on Wednesday from her home on the capital's Bailey Road by the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and brought to the Rab headquarters for interrogation.
Later, she was arrested after being sued under the Digital Security Act with the Ramna Police Station.
On October 19, Ruma posted a video of the assassination of businessman Shahinuddin earlier on May 16 in the capital's Pallabi area on her Facebook claiming it to be the attack on Jatan Kumar Saha in Noakhali, which led to his death, according to the case documents.
Jatan was beaten to death on the afternoon of October 15, when Hindu temples in Noakhali's Begumganj upazila were attacked.
On May 16, Shahinuddin was hacked to death in front of his son by a group of criminals, and several persons, including a former lawmaker, were arrested a few days after the incident over the murder.
She also came on Facebook Live and spread provocative information.
With the help of information technology, the elite force has come to know that the video clip of Shahinuddin's murder was first spread on Facebook Messenger by an individual named Devdrita Bhowmik from Kolkata; then another Devdas Mandal, also from Kolkata, uploaded the same video on Twitter.
"Ruma shared the fake video and made provocative speeches, which may hurt religious sentiment and deteriorate the law and order. So, we have arrested her," Khandaker Al Moin, Rab's director for legal and media wing, told The Daily Star.
Investigation Officer Shofiqul Islam Shofiq, also a sub-inspector of Ramna Police Station, produced Ruma before the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Masud-Ur-Rahman with a seven-day remand prayer, court sources said.
In the remand prayers, the IO said the accused spread propaganda and made provocative speeches on Facebook to tarnish the image of the state as well as deteriorate the law and order across the country.
The accused should need to be remanded to quiz why she did such activities on Facebook, he added.
The defence also filed two separate petitions with the court in favour of Ruma: one for seeking bail and another for seeking cancellation of the remand prayer.
However, the magistrate rejected the petitions and granted her the remand.
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