The High Court today wanted to know the offence, based on which Kurigram journalist Ariful Islam was sentenced to one-year imprisonment.

The court also asked the government to inform it by tomorrow whether the arrest and jail sentence of Ariful was legal.

The High Court bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir today sought the information from the authorities while hearing a writ petition filed by Harun Ur Rashid, Executive Editor of online news portal Bangla Tribune.

Earlier in the day, Rashid filed a petition with the High Court challenging the legality of Ariful's conviction and subsequent jail sentence.

In the petition, Harun Ur Rashid also requested the High Court to direct the authorities concerned to give Tk 50 lakh as compensation to Ariful.

Advocate Ishrat Hasan appeared for the writ petitioner while Deputy Attorney General Debashish Bhattacharya represented the state.

Journalist Ariful was arrested from his home in the dead of night and jailed for one year on charge of "possessing narcotics". A Kurigram court granted him bail today.