Arrest warrant out for BNP leader Tarique, ex-ETV reporter in sedition case

A Dhaka court has issued arrest warrants for BNP Senior Vice-chairman Tarique Rahman and a former journalist of the private channel Ekushey Television (ETV) in a sedition case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sarafuzzaman Ansari issued the order on Thursday after accepting the chargesheet against them and two others. The case was initiated with Tejgaon Industrial Zone police on Jan 8 last year.

ETV's former chief reporter Mahathir Faruki Khan is the second person who is now on the wanted list, court police prosecution wing Deputy Commissioner (DC) Md Anisur Rahman told bdnews24.com.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s elder son Tarique, who is an accused and wanted in several other cases, has been living in the UK for the past eight years.

Following the home ministry's clearance, police set the sedition case rolling three days after ETV broadcast live Tarique’s speech delivered at an event in London.

The case had initially accused only Tarique and former ETV chairman Abdus Salam, but later Khan and the channel’s senior reporter Kanak Sarwar were implicated in the chargesheet.

Only Salam is currently in jail. Sarwar is out on bail while Khan is still on the run, said DC Rahman.

Police had accused Tarique and Salam of “threatening Bangladesh's sovereignty and trying to create hatred against a legally constituted government by broadcasting and dishing out false and fabricated information”.

The Detective Branch (DB) of police formally submitted the chargesheet against the four on Sep 6.

Tarique in the Jan 5, 2015, speech had made controversial remarks regarding Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.

That same month, the High Court slapped a ban on the publishing and broadcasting of his statements in any form of media in the country.

The BNP leader was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and fined Tk 200 million by the High Court on Jul 21this year in a money laundering case.

Earlier, arrest warrants were also issued for him in four cases, including one related to the August 21 grenade attack.