Actress Mahi, husband ‘spread lies’ about police on Facebook: GMP chief

A Gazipur court ordered the actress to jail in a case under the Digital Security Act

Gazipur Correspondent
Published : 18 March 2023, 09:49 AM
Updated : 18 March 2023, 09:49 AM

The chief of Gazipur Metropolitan Police (GMP) has accused actress Sharmin Akter Nipa, better known by her screen name Mahiya Mahi, of “spewing lies” about men and women in uniform under his command on social media.

GMP Commissioner Mollah Nazrul Islam made the allegation at a press conference on Saturday, hours after police arrested Mahi in the Dhaka airport area following her return from a pilgrimage to Makkah.

Arrest warrants were issued against Mahi and her husband Rakib Sarker, a businessman and a leader of the ruling party's Gazipur wing, on charges of making 'false and defamatory' comments on social media in a case under the Digital Security Act.

Although Rakib accompanied Mahi during the pilgrimage, he did not return home with her.

According to the case statement, the couple made a Facebook livestream accusing Gazipur police of 'favouritism' after their showroom, Sony Raz Car Palace, was vandalised.

Commissioner Nazrul said Mahi made 'false statements' about the GMP during her rant on the social media platform.

“She had no right to make such comments about an institution [GMP]. That’s why the case was started,” he said.

The couple is embroiled in a dispute over the land on which the showroom is situated and their adversaries have filed a criminal case against them, the Gazipur police chief added.

Following her marriage to Rakib, a member of the ruling party's relief and social welfare sub-committee in Gazipur, in 2021, the film actor was appointed as the joint general secretary of the Bangabandhu Sangskritik Jote's central committee.

She also sought the Awami League's nomination for the recent Chapainawabganj-2 by-election.

Judge Md Iqbal Hossain ordered Mahi to jail after police produced her before the Gazipur Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on Saturday afternoon, according to GMP Deputy Commissioner Ahsanul Haque.