Actors Equity stands by Tahsan, Mithila, Faria

Actors Equity Bangladesh extended their support to Tahsan Khan, Rafiath Rashid Mithila and Shabnam Faria on Sunday as the three actors are facing fraudulence and embezzlement charges filed by a customer of controversial e-commerce site Evaly.

Actors Equity Bangladesh (Abhinay Shilpi Sangha), a platform of TV artistes, in a statement issued on Sunday also condemned the incident of accusing the three actors in the case.

“Recently, it has been noticed that a person has filed a case against an e-commerce company. The list of accused in the case includes the names of three popular actors Tahsan Khan, Rafiat Rashid Mithila and Shabnam Faria. Of them, two were goodwill ambassadors of the company and the other one was an employee. When the customer who filed the case, made the transaction, these artistes were not associated with the company,” reads the statement signed by Actors Equity Bangladesh President Shahiduzzaman Selim and Secretary General Ahsan Habib Nasim.

“We strongly condemn naming the artists as accused with an intention to seek public attention and to dishonour and embarrass our artistes,” it adds.

“The law will take its own course. If anyone is found guilty in the trial, they will face punishment. But it is not acceptable by any means to name the artistes to embarrass them unnecessarily, drag them into an embarrassing situation and disgrace them,” it added.

The platform also expressed solidarity with the three artists by saying, “We are with Tahsan, Mithila and Faria, and with any moral movement and crisis of any artiste.”

The actors’ platform alleged that some people have been engaged in smear campaigns on social media against the artistes in recent times and many even are suing the artistes which are very alarming and not acceptable at all.

“Artists are highly admired and loved by the people across the world. Therefore, various businesses involve artistes to promote their products. In return for a specific honorarium, the artistes participate in advertisements and various events to promote business products which is a legal transaction throughout the world. The goodwill ambassador or model of a business organisation is never liable for any product quality or any unethical transactions of that organisation,” they further said in the statement.

However, Rafiath Rashid Mithila, former brand ambassador of Evaly and Sabnam Faria, former head of the public relations department of the same company, secured anticipatory bail in the case at the High Court on Monday.