Journalist arrested over Bangladesh general election news

Police have arrested a journalist over reports that the number of cast votes exceeded that of voters in a constituency.

Khulna Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 1 Jan 2019, 04:40 PM
Updated : 1 Jan 2019, 04:40 PM

The arrested journalist, Hedait Hossain Molla, is the Khulna correspondent of the Dhaka Tribune and online news portal Bangla Tribune.

Police are also looking for Rashidul Islam, the Khulna correspondent of the Daily Manab Zamin, in the same case started by Assistant Returning Officer Debashish Chowdhury at Batiaghata Police Station under the Digital Security Act.

Returning Officer Mohammad Helal Hossain has said the case was initiated on the Election Commission’s orders.

“Bangla Tribune and Manab Zamin published the news that 22,000 more votes than the total number of voters were cast at Khulna-1 (Dacope-Batiaghata) constituency in Sunday’s elections,” Khulna Superintendent of Police SM Shafiullah told bdnews24.com.

“This false and baseless information was published intentionally to make the election questionable,” he said.

“We’ve arrested Hedait, one of the accused. We are looking for the other accused, Rashidul,” he added.