DSA Case Against Journalist Kajol: Charged with ‘defaming ministers, MPs, leaders’

Investigators have charged photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol with circulating indecent, defamatory, objectionable and fake information about some ministers, lawmakers and top Jubo Mahila League leaders on Facebook.

After an almost 10-month long probe, Sub-inspector Mohammad Russell Mollah of Detective Branch of police, the investigation officer, filed the charge sheet with Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka on February 4 in a case under the Digital Security Act (DSA).

Usmin Ara Bally, a member of the central committee of Bangladesh Jubo Mahila League, a wing of the ruling Awami League, filed the case with Hazaribagh Police Station on March 10 last year.

According to the charge sheet, Kajol published fake news on his Facebook page regarding the arrest and alleged crimes of expelled Jubo Mahila League leader Shamima Nur Papia.

The Daily Star obtained a copy of the charge sheet yesterday.

In the charge sheet, the investigator said Jubo Mahila League's Narsingdi district unit general secretary Shamima Nur Papia was arrested by Rapid Action Battalion for her alleged involvement in different crimes. Soon after her arrest, Jubo Mahila League expelled her. The Narsingdi Jubo Mahila League committee was also dissolved.

Kajol was also charged with uploading indecent, defamatory, objectionable and fake information about Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, AL General Secretary and Road Transport Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, several other ministers, AL leader and lawmaker Amir Hossain Amu, others lawmakers, Jubo Mahila League's President Nazma Akhter, its General Secretary Apu Ukil and several other female leaders and activists.

Kajol also allegedly tried to extort the female leaders by coming up with indecent posts and fake photographs, and threatened to cast aspersions on their character through his Facebook account, the charge sheet said.

The investigation officer claimed to have found information on Kajol's chat with Usmin Ara Bally on Facebook between March 10 and 17 last year. Moreover, on March 3 that year, Kajol sent six photographs to Usmin's messenger; of them, one photograph was indecent, the charge sheet said.

The officer claimed that the charges brought against Kajol for uploading indecent, objectionable, defamatory and false information about Awami League leaders, Jubo Mahila League leaders, ministers and lawmakers, and demanding extortion through his Facebook were primarily found to be true.

So, Kajol should face trial for his alleged involvement in such offences, the charge sheet added.

If the charges are proven in court, Kajol might face a sentence of five to seven years in jail.

Kajol was shown arrested in the case on May 14 last year. On June 28, he was placed on a two-day remand.

Contacted, Kajol's lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua said that he was yet to receive a copy of the charge sheet.

"I will be in the position to say anything about the charge sheet once I get a copy," he told The Daily Star last night.

He, however, said the investigation itself was flawed.

"In any case filed under the DSA, the allotted investigation time is 60 days, with an additional 15-day extension. If the investigation is not complete within that time, another 30 days are allowed, subject to the approval of the cyber tribunal. Since this investigation into the said case could not be completed in 105 days and no time petition was sought from the tribunal, the investigation itself is flawed," said the lawyer.

Kajol faced 53 days of enforced disappearance and spent seven months in prison. He had disappeared on March 10 last year and was "found" by the Border Guard Bangladesh roaming around the Benapole border 53 days later.

He then landed in jail in a case filed under the DSA by lawmaker Saifuzzaman Shikhor, and two Jubo Mahila League activists over a Facebook post.

The lower court concerned kept denying him bail for seven months, until the High Court on November 24 granted him bail in one case and ordered the investigation officer and Cyber Tribunal to submit reports in the two others.

Finally, on December 17, the HC granted him bail in the two other cases after Kajol's lawyer pointed out that the probes had to be concluded within 75 days of filing of the cases, and the investigators had failed to do so.

However, investigators are yet to submit the probe reports in the two other cases filed against Kajol with Sher-e-Bangla Nagar and Kamrangirchar police stations. These two cases were also recorded under the DSA in March last year.