Crossfire of charges

Ruling Awami League MP Golam Maula Rony and Independent Television co-owner Salman F Rahman have sued each other for ‘attempted murder’.

The private TV accused Rony of trying to kill two of its journalists while the lawmaker alleged Rahman tried to murder him on Saturday.

It all started around noon when the channel’s journalists Imtiaz Momin Sony and cameraman Mohsin Mukul went to interview Rony at his Meherba Plaza office at Topkhana Road for their investigative programme ‘Talash’.

“Our ‘Talash’ team had information that Golam Maula Rony would give Tk 20 million to a government official for a tender. So we went there to interview him,” Sony told bdnews24.com.

“At one point during the interview,” he said, “Rony and his men started assaulting us.”

Their camera and microphone were also smashed, he said.

Journalist union leaders rushed there and the MP offered an apology with a promise to compensate for the damaged camera and bear treatment cost.

Clearing his position, Rony claimed the TV station had unleashed its crime-based investigative team at the behest of Salman, as he had been outspoken about the capital market debacle.

“I suspect the TV had unleashed its Talash team on me at the order of the ‘Darvish’,” Rony alleged, referring to Rahman.

“They had been meeting my electorate for 10 days. My relatives said they were trying to collect information to build a graft case against me,” he said.

Rony said the Talash team had been following him over the past several days and demanded Tk 500,000 from his front-desk official.

He, however, brushed aside allegations of beating up the journalists. “I don’t know who attacked them but I offered apologies as it took place in front of my office,” he had said.

Dhaka Union of Journalists General Secretary Shaban Mahmud said the incident resulted from “a misunderstanding”.

The private channel’s Assistant Manager Yunus Ali filed a case with the Shahbagh police accusing the Awami League MP and up to 25 others of murderous assault on its journalists.

Rony lodged a complaint on his MP’s letterhead with the Shahbagh police on Saturday night, accusing Independent TV co-owner of extortion, attempt-to-murder, and abduction.

The lawmaker from Patuakhali-3 constituency alleged henchmen of Rahman had tried to extort money.

“They ‘staged’ Saturday’s incident with a view to abducting and murdering me, as they failed to get any money,” Rony claimed, according to case details.

Only months after his party came to power, the MP was accused of filling up a river in Patuakhali’s Galachipa and constructing a shopping mall there. Several dailies ran reports on the matter.

His supporters had allegedly beaten up several local journalists for reporting the incident while Rony filed four cases against the newsmen.

However, he came into the limelight for saying on a TV channel that former Communication Minister Syed Abul Hossain had won his Cabinet berth by ‘winning a race’.