Kishore, Mushtaq denied bail again

A virtual court in Dhaka yesterday rejected a bail petition of cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore and writer Mushtaq Ahmed in a case filed under the Digital Security Act.

Judge KM Emrul Kayesh of Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka passed the order after their lawyer submitted a petition seeking bail through email against the rejection order of the lower court.

On June 16, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Jasim rejected both the remand and bail petitions of Kishore, Mushtaq and two others and allowed police to interrogate them at jail gate for two days.

At yesterday's hearing, the defence lawyer told the court that their clients were arrested on May 5 and since then they have been in jail custody, adding that they were implicated in the case as part of a conspiracy to harass them.

DMP's assistant commissioner Md Farid Ahmed opposed the defence pleas, saying charges brought against them were found to be true.

Eleven people -- including the four arrestees -- were charged with "spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government activities" on May 6.

Rab-3 Assistant Director Abu Bakar Siddique said Swedish-Bangladeshi journalist Tasneem Khalil, US-based journalist Shahed Alam and blogger Asif Mohiuddin are also among those named in the case.

According to the FIR filed with Ramna Police Station, Kishore was picked up on May 5 from his Kakrail home.

It mentioned that upon interrogation, he disclosed the name of Mushtaq who was then apprehended from his Lalmatia's house in the capital on the same day.

However, Mushtaq's family alleged that he was picked up on the early hours of May 4. Kishore and Mushtaq landed in jail after they were produced before a Dhaka court on May 6.

Later, two more accused -- Didarul Islam Bhuiyan, an activist of a platform called 'Rastrachinta', and businessman Minhaj Mannan Emon -- were also arrested and are now in jail custody.