Published : 25 Sep 2024, 11:47 PM
Updated : 21 Aug 2026, 11:55 AM
Farzana Rashid Brownia, chairman of the ‘Shorno Kishoree’ programme and former Channel i anchor, has sued the television channel’s Head of News Shykh Seraj and four others over allegations of deception, extortion, embezzlement, and death threats.
In the lawsuit initiated with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's court in Dhaka on Wednesday, Farzana alleged that the suspects had deceived her by not paying her the monthly wages she was owed for a long time and threatened her to pay them Tk 500 million.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Hasibul Haque accepted the complaint and asked the Criminal Investigation Department of police to investigate and submit a report to the court on the matter.
The other suspects in the case are Awami League leaders Jahir Uddin Mahmud Mamun, Mukit Majumder Babu, Abdur Rashid Majumder Parvez and Riaz Ahmed Khan.
Farzana alleged that she had joined Channel i as an event manager in 2014 with a monthly salary of Tk 100,000. She directed and anchored a programme titled ‘Shorno Kishoree’ that gained fame in the country and abroad.
However, she was dismissed from the job without any prior notice as she had shown support to students during the quota reform movement in 2018. The TV channel had promised her that she would be paid for her work until a written dismissal order was issued, but the dues have not been paid since October 2018, Farzana said.
The amount of Farzana’s dues from Channel i has risen to Tk 6.9 million and is Tk 7.9 million along with her festival allowances, the complaint claims.
Farzana alleged that armed criminals under ‘Shykh’s order’ had stopped her car when she was returning home from Tejgaon on Sept 7 and demanded ‘Tk 500 million as extortion’. They threatened that she ‘would be killed’ if legal action was taken in this regard.
In her plea, Farzana said that Shykh and the other accused had worked against the quota reform movement by 'associating with the fascist government’ of the Awami League and did harm to her career and earnings by closing the Shorno Kishoree programme.
Shykh has also been accused of his 'involvement in a conspiracy’ with agents of the Indian intelligence agency ‘RAW’ and of ‘illegally amassing wealth.’
When contacted, Shykh told bdnews24.com: “This is just a false harassment case. We'll talk about it through a lawyer."
bdnews24.com could not reach the other accused for comment on the matter.
