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Published : 19 Aug 2015, 04:29 PM
Faridpur’s First Cognisance Court Judge Hamidul Islam granted the bail on Wednesday, only a day after he turned down the same plea.
The next hearing was fixed for Sep 22, a month from the previous scheduled date.
After the bail order, Probir Sikdar was taken to Faridpur District Jail. He was released around 1:45pm after the bail documents reached the prison.
Activists of local BNP and its associate organisations were seen waiting at the prison gate with garlands to greet the journalist on his release.
“I will go home (Kanaipur) first. Then return to Dhaka,” Sikdar told journalists after walking free.
He also thanked Bangladeshi journalists, rights organisations and professional bodies for playing a big role in his release.
“I express gratitude to Bangladesh’s journalists and professionals, Ganajagaran Mancha, blogger organisations for the commitment the way they took to the streets for my release.”
“I also thank human rights organisations for their role in my release and at the same time I am also grateful to top government officials who took a humanitarian view of my case.”
The same court on Tuesday granted the police three days remand to question Sikdar and set the next hearing for Aug 22.
Lawyer Swapan Paul, the plaintiff of the case, said police had finished questioning Sikdar and produced him in court before expiry of remand.
Paul has sued Sikdar over his Facebook post allegedly ‘defaming’ LGRD Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain under the ICT Act.
Sikdar’s counsel Ali Ashraf Nannu said the journalist had been let out on a bail bond of Tk 5,000.
Jahid Bepari, the plaintiff’s lawyer, said they did not contest the bail plea as Sikdar had allegedly admitted his ‘mistake’ during the remand.
Sikdar’s wife Anita Sikdar was present at the court and expressed satisfaction over his release.
Police allegedly refused to take a complaint by Sikdar, who said he was threatened for his Facebook posts.
On Aug 10, he talked about the alleged intimidation in his Facebook posting and blamed LGRD Minister Hossain, controversial business tycoon Moosa bin Shamser and death-row war criminal Bachchu Razakar for the threat to his life.
Shamser’s daughter is married to the son of Awami League Presidium Member and the prime minister’s cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, MP.
Sikdar had written on Shamser's alleged role in the Liberation War in an article titled 'Shei Razakar' when he was the Faridpur correspondent of Daily Janakantha in 2001. The journalist claimed the attack which left him maimed in the same year was orchestrated by Shamser’s goons.
LGRD Minister Hossain on Monday claimed he did not know about the case being filed against Sikdar.
"Why will I not take strong legal action against someone who is openly writing that if he (Sikdar) is killed, I am the one who will be responsible for it?" he told bdnews24.com.
“Did I do anything wrong?” he asked, adding there was no way but to arrest someone accused in a case filed under Section 57 of the ICT Act.
Sikdar was moved to Faridpur around Aug 16 midnight after he was arrested in Dhaka in the evening. The case against him was lodged at Faridpur Kotwali Police Station by then.
Faridpur’s First Cognisance Court sent the journalist to prison the next day.
