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Bashundhara case binned

Court says defamation charges against Prothom Alo not convincing

Staff Correspondent
A Dhaka court yesterday dismissed a defamation case filed by Bashundhara Group against the Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman. Transcom Group Chairman Latifur Rahman and Prothom.Alo journalist Mizanur Rahman Khan.
Executive Director of Bashundhara Steal and Engineering Ltd Major (retd) Zahidur Rahman filed the case with the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate in Dhaka yesterday morning.The court dismissed the case after holding hearing on it.
The court said it dismissed the case on the ground that it was not specified which parts of the report published in lite Daily Prothom Alo had defamed Bashundara Group.
Latifur Rahman, in the case, was mentioned as the publisher of the Prothom /Mo although he is not the publisher of the leading Bangla daily of the country.
Earlier on Tuesday night and Wednesday. Bashundhara Group tried to file a fabricated case against eight people including Matiur Rahman. Latifur Rahman and the Editor of the Samakal Golam Sarwar and its publisherAK Azad.
At the beginning, Bashundhara Group put pressure on police to file a case but police refused to record the complaint as a case because the allegations were not found authentic. Later they recorded it as a general diary.
Having been failed to record it as a case, they communicated with government high-ups to put pressure on the police.
Finally Bashundhara Group yesterday filed the case with the court of judicial magistrate Shariar Arafat in Dhaka.
The complainant of the defamation case in the case statement said the chairman of Bashundhara had been defamed socially, commercially and politically because of the report published on the daily Prothom Alo on May 8 and October 12 this year.
Through the untrue and derogatory remarks and cartoon the Bashundhara Group chairman has been defamed. Therefore, the businessmen involved in the Bashundhara Steal and Engineering Ltd has lost their interests in all kinds of commercial exchanges and investments and the institution incurred a financial loss of Tk 500 crore.
The victim went to the South Keraniganj police station to lodge a case in this regard but he was advised to file the case with the court.
Judicial magistrate Shahriar Arafat in the order of dismissal said that there is no specific information of allegation of tarnishing the name and fame of anybody. Besides, it is not clear which parts of the reports carried by the daily Prothom Alo have defamed the complainant.
The order said it was not mentioned in the case statement which parts of the reports are false. Many things have been overlooked and the matters of loss were not specifically mentioned in the case.
The case is dismissed, as there is no sufficient ground in this case, the order said.
Advocate Gazi Shah Alam. General Secretary of Dhaka Bar Association, advocate Forkan Mian, advocate M Abbas Uddin and advocate Enamul Haque Sardar, lawyers of advocate Sahara Khatun and associates appeared for the complainant.
The complainant filed the case in the morning but kept mum till noon yesterday.
Earlier an investigative report titled "Bashundharake Rakkhay Rashtrajantra Moria (Government is desperate to protect Bashundhara)” was published on Monday and an analysis titled “Halud Sangbadikatar Ovijog/ Montobya Nei Prodhan Blcharpatir (Allegation of yellow journalism/ No Comments of the Chief Justice)” was published on ■Riesday in the daily Prothom Alo.
The report says Bashundhara Group chairman, his wife and two sons convicted and sentenced in the tax evasion cases are out on bail, which is against the verdict of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
The Bashundhara authorities, however, did not protest the report.