BCL leaders file 2 defamation cases against Daily Star editor

A Bangladesh Chhatra League leader today filed a Tk 50-crore defamation case against The Daily Star editor for publishing reports based on information given by DGFI which allegedly tarnished the image of Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina.

Meanwhile, a local leader of BCL, pro-Awami League student body, filed another Tk 1-crore defamation case in Khulna on the same charge.

Mahmudunnabi Chowdhury Sohel, BCL president of Laxmipur district unit, filed the case with court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Farzana Akter.

The plaintiff filed the case after reading a report in Bangla daily Kaler Kantha on Mahfuz Anam’s admission of using DGFI information during a talk show of ATN News, plaintiff’s counsel Adv Russel Mahmud Bhuiyan  Mannan told our Noakhali correspondent.

After recording statement of Sohel, the judge asked him to submit the reports published by the English daily in 2007 before it.

The court will take further decision after getting the necessary documents, the lawyer said.

In Khulna, district unit BCL general secretary Mushfiqur Rahman Sagor filed Tk 1-crore defamation case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court against Anam, bringing the same allegations.

The court fixed March 3 for the next hearing. It also ordered the Khulna Sadar Police Staton officer-in-charge to submit a report before it to this end on March 1, plaintiff’s lawyer Advocate Md Shah Alam told our Khulna Correspondent.

At a talk show on February 3, Anam made an introspective comment about a lapse in his editorial judgement in publishing a few reports that the newspaper could not independently verify at the time.

During the 2007-08 period, almost all the mainstream media outlets -- both print and electronic -- ran reports on corruption by top political figures based on information given by the joint forces.

But some ruling party leaders and lawmakers are making an issue out of it and taking a dig at The Daily Star and its editor. Attempts are also being made to distort and give negative spins to what Mahfuz Anam has actually said during the talk show.