High Court grants Afsan Chowdhury anticipatory bail in ICT case

The High Court has granted journalist and university teacher Afsan Chowdhury anticipatory bail for four weeks in an ICT case started by one retired army officer.

Justice Zinat Ara and Justice SM Mozibur Rahman passed the order on Monday hearing his bail plea.

Advocate M Asaduzzaman argued for Afsan while Deputy Attorney General Moniruzzaman Rubel represented the state.

Afsan will have to surrender to a lower court before the bail expires, Rubel told bdnews24.com.

Masud Uddin Chowdhury, a retired lieutenant general, started the case with Gulshan police on Jun 8 under Section 57 of the ICT Act.

The case accuses Afsan of writing a Facebook post with ‘false statements’ regarding the plaintiff.

In a post on Facebook in May, Afsan claimed Masud was father to one of the suspects accused of raping two girls in a Banani hotel.

File Photo

In fact, the suspect in question, Shadman Sakif, is the son of Regnum Group MD Mohammad Hossain Jony who is one of the owners of the Picasso restaurant where Masud is the chairman. Afsan later removed his Facebook post.

Afsan was recently served a legal notice by a Supreme Court lawyer who accused him of defaming the judiciary in another Facebook post.

Afsan, who is a teacher at Brac University and a columnist, regularly appears on TV talk-shows.

Masud was the GOC of the ninth infantry division during the tenure of army-backed caretaker government from 2007 to 2008. He was later promoted and sent abroad on a diplomatic mission.

After serving more than six years as Bangladesh’s envoy to Australia, he opened Picasso restaurant in Dhaka. The restaurant is co-owned by Mohammad Hossain Jony whose son Shadman Sakif is named in the rape case.