Barisal court rejects defamation plea against bdnews24.com

A Barisal court has rejected the plea for a defamation suit filed against four senior editors of bdnews24.com for refusing to remove old reports against Dr HBM Iqbal and his family.

Barisal Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court Judge Masum Billah passed the order on Sunday, confirmed court official Kamrul Ahsan to Dhaka Tribune.

He said the court dismissed the case as the petition did not appear to be acceptable to the judge.

The bilingual news portal’s Barisal correspondent Kawsar Hossain said bdnews24.com was pressured in various ways to remove the old reports on Dr HBM Iqbal – a businessman and former Awami League MP from Dhaka 10 constituency – and his family.

Claiming to be Dr HBM Iqbal’s friend, Kazi Nasir Uddin Babul, filed the Tk200 crore defamation suit with the Barisal Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on February 24.

Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor-in-chief of bdnews24.com, Arun Debnath, head of English News; Zahidul Kabir, news editor; and Munirul Islam, news editor were named as defendants in the case.

On February 25, Senior Metropolitan Magistrate Poly Afroze set March 10 for an order on the petition, but later it was transferred to the additional metropolitan magistrate’s court.

Earlier in a press conference on February 17, authorities of bdnews24.com alleged Dr HBM Iqbal of pressurizing them to take down the reports published on and related to him from 2007 and till the present.