JU student jailed over disparaging comments on Bangabandhu and Hasina

The Dhaka Cyber Tribunal has sentenced Jahangirnagar University student Shamsul Alam Babu to seven years in jail in a case over a slanderous attack on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on his Facebook account.

Judge Joglul Hossain of the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal handed down the rigorous prison sentence to Babu, a student of the university’s Department of Government and Politics, on Monday.

Babu, who was out on bail, was present in court during the delivery of the verdict.

His lawyer Nasima Akter Lovely said they will decide whether to challenge the ruling after receiving a copy of the verdict.

According to the judgment, the defendant is only 23 years old. Taking his age into account, he is being sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment under the Information and Communication Technology Act.

The case against Babu was started on Aug 5, 2015 and a chargesheet was filed in court after investigation on Apr 26, 2016.

The judge heard accounts from nine witnesses before giving the verdict.

According to the case documents, the university’s 38th batch student Al Amin Setu from the same department published a column on Bangabandhu’s unfinished autobiography and it was posted on Facebook by his batchmate from the Department of English Murshidur Rahman Akand.

Babu commented on Akand’s post from a Facebook account of ‘Kabir Mamu’ where he made malicious statements about Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Sheikh Hasina. The students of the university were repulsed by Babu’s comments, affecting the law and order on the campus.

Setu then brought the matter to the attention of the university authorities and the chief security officer of the campus handed Babu over to Ashulia police.