The High Court on Wednesday granted a 6-month bail to cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore in connection with a case filed under the Digital Security Act (DSA).
An HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mustafizur Rahman passed the order on Wednesday after a hearing on a bail petition in this regard.
During the hearing, Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua stood for the petitioner while Deputy Attorney General Md Sarwar Hossain Bappy moved for the state, at the courtroom.
Earlier on March 1, the High Court set Wednesday (March 3) for delivering the order on the bail plea.
On February 28, a Dhaka court scrapped the plea of the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crimes (CTTC) unit of the police to take cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore on remand in the case.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Jasim passed the order, rejecting a plea of the investigation agency CTTC to take Kishore on a three-day remand.
The CTTC on February 23 filed the petition and the court had set today to hold a hearing on the matter.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) filed the case against 11 persons on May 5, 2020, on the charges of spreading anti-state falsehood to tarnish the image of Bangladesh and create confusion from a Facebook page.
The 11 accused in the case are -- Ahmed Kabir Kishore, Rashtrachinta coordinator Didarul Bhuiyan, Minhaj Mannan, Tasnim Khalil, Sahed Alam, Asif Mohiuddin, Zulkarnain Shayer Khan alias Sami, Ashik Imran, Swapan Wahid, Philip Shumakher and writer Mushtak Ahmed, who died in jail recently.
Earlier on January 13, police filed the charge sheet against cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore, Rashtrachinta coordinator Didarul Bhuiyan and writer Mushtak Ahmed.
Police, however, excluded names of eight accused Minhaj Mannan, Tasnim Khalil, Sahed Alam, Asif Mohiuddin, Sami, Ashik Imran, Swapan Wahid and Philip Shumakher from the charge sheet, saying the allegations brought against them were not proved. On February 10, Bangladesh Cyber Tribunal had ordered CTTC to further investigate the case and submit the report on February 28.
The court came up with the order, allowing a prosecution plea to further investigate the case. The prosecution on February 9 also filed naraji (no confidence) petition against the charge-sheet for dropping names of eight accused.
Earlier on February 25, Mushtaq died in the high-security Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur district who was jailed for allegedly violating the stringent DSA.
Earlier on May 6 last year, Mushtaq Ahmed was arrested under the DSA for his social media comments allegedly criticising the government.
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