Rony to resign

Awami League MP Golam Maula Rony says he has decided to resign, amid the furore over his assault on journalists leading to back-to-back cases and after his party distanced itself from him.

He told bdnews24.com on Tuesday, “I have personally decided to resign. I will say something on this after I discuss it with the Speaker in the afternoon.”

The Patuakhali-3 MP was seen entering Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury’s room at Parliament at around 2:20pm.

He said he had come to discuss the issue of his resignation with the Speaker as it was a constitutional one.

Before this he posted in his facebook page -

“I will probably resign. I feel that I should fight these conspiracies as a regular citizen.”

He had beaten up two Independent TV journalists on Saturday when they went to interview him for a crime-based programme, ‘Talash’.

The TV management sued him for the ‘murderous assault’. Rony in turn filed a case against the Independent TV journalists, accusing them of extortion and blackmail.

The Patuakhali-3 MP had claimed the TV station unleashed its crime-based investigative team at the behest of Salman F Rahman, co-owner of the station, as he had been outspoken about the capital market debacle.

Rony’s party has distanced itself from him only to add to his woes, expressing dismay over the assault and hinting at possible Parliament actions against the lawmaker.

“A large section of my party is speaking for Salman F Rahman,” Rony said at Parliament.

Rahman is an advisor to the Awami League President.

“For this reason, I felt morally obliged to step down.”