A retired army officer has sued Brac University teacher and senior journalist Afsan Chowdhury for defamation under the ICT Act for one of his Facebook posts.
Gulshan police OC Abu Bakar Siddique said Lt Gen (retd) Masud Uddin Chowdhury filed the case on Tuesday night.
Masud wrote that Afsan posted a status on Facebook claiming that he was the father of one of the Banani rape case accused.
Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act stipulates that any post, image, or video on an electronic format that “causes to deteriorate law and order, prejudice the image of the state or person or hurt religious beliefs” are non-bailable offences.
Also Read- Supreme Court lawyer demands arrest of Afsan Chowdhury
The punishment is a minimum seven years in prison and up to a maximum of 14 years. The fines can go up to Tk1 crore.
Numerous journalists, students and teachers have been imprisoned under Section 57.
The act has been called draconian in its implementation and criticised for how it can be interpreted by law enforcement agencies.
On Monday, a Supreme Court lawyer served a legal notice to the police chief and the home secretary demanding Afsan Chowdhury's arrest for his Facebook post on Chief Justice SK Sinha.
The lawyer claimed that Afsan posted false and slanderous comments about the chief justice, the judiciary and several prominent individuals, and misleading comments about Hefazat-e-Islam.
Leave a Comment