Local leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) in Laxmipur and
Khulna yesterday filed two defamation cases against The Daily Star
Editor Mahfuz Anam.
In the cases, they demanded compensation of Tk 51 crore for
"publishing without verification reports on Sheikh Hasina based on
information provided by the DGFI after the 1/11 political changeover".
The cases were filed two days after some ruling Awami League
lawmakers and leaders demanded Mahfuz Anam's arrest on sedition charge
for publishing the reports in 2007.
Chowdhury Mahmudunnabi Sohel, president of the Laxmipur district BCL,
filed a Tk 50-crore defamation suit with the court of Additional Chief
Judicial Magistrate Farzana Akhter.
After recording Sohel's statement, the judge asked him to submit The
Daily Star reports published in 2007, but did not set any specific date
for this, the plaintiff's lawyer told our Noakhali correspondent.
The court would make further decisions after receiving necessary documents, he added.
Laxmipur district BCL General Secretary Rakib Hossain Lotus and three
other leaders of the unit have been made witnesses in the case.
Talking to reporters, Sohel said that he claimed the compensation
because the "DGFI-fed reports" tarnished the image of BCL's
organisational chief Sheikh Hasina.
However, Hasina is in no way part of the organisation and it's the
BCL president who is the organisational chief of the student body,
according to its constitution.
The Awami League has seven associate organisations but the BCL is not
among those. The student body was dropped from the list through an AL
council in 2009.
The other case was filed by Mushfiqur Rahman Sagar, general secretary
of Khulna district BCL. He demanded Taka 1 crore in compensation from
Mahfuz Anam.
The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Khulna fixed March 3 for next hearing.
The court also ordered the officer-in-charge of Khulna Sadar Police
Station to submit on March 1 a report on the charges brought against the
accused, Sagar's lawyer Md Shah Alam told our Khulna correspondent.
During a talk-show aired live on a private TV channel on February 3,
Mahfuz Anam made an introspective comment about a lapse in his editorial
judgement in publishing a few reports that the newspaper could not
independently verify during the last caretaker government's tenure.
