Posting Photos of Shipra on FB : Petition filed against two police officers

A  Supreme Court lawyer yesterday filed  a writ petition with the High Court challenging two police officers' actions of posting personal photographs of Shipra Debnath along with provocative comments on Facebook.

Barrister Manoj Kumar Bhowmik submitted the petition as a public interest  litigation, seeking its order on the authorities  concerned of the government to conduct a probe into this issue and take proper action against the police officers responsible for posting  the photographs on Facebook. In  the petition, the lawyer said the action of police officers of posting  personal photographs of Shipra Debnath along with provocative comments  on Facebook is illegal as it has assassinated her character.

Manoj Kumar Bhowmik told The Daily Star that the High Court may hold hearing on his writ petition on tomorrow (Tuesday). He  submitted the writ petition based on a report published on The Daily  Star yesterday under the headline "Cyber-bullying now adds to her trauma."

The  report said, "Shipra Debnath, a student of Stamford University and a  crew member of slain Maj (retd) Sinha Md Rashed Khan, has fallen victim  to cyber-bullying, her family alleged."

"A  group of people, including some top-ranking police officials, have been  posting her personal photographs along with provocative comments on  Facebook, trying to assassinate her character," said her younger brother  Shuvojit Kumar Debnath.

In  one instance, Superintendent of Police Mostafijur Rahman of Satkhira  shared some of her pictures on his Facebook profile on August 14 and  took a dig at her character. In the post, he hinted that some more  pictures may come.A  similar post was made by Mohammad Mizanur Rahman Shelley, SP (Dhaka  Metro -- South) of the Police Bureau of Investigation, who also authored  crime fiction books. He tried to justify the case filed against Shipra by sharing similar photos of her.

Derogatory  comments were then made on the post where people tried to assassinate the young woman's character. Some other police officers also endorsed  the posts of their SPs.

Similar  derogatory posts were also doing rounds on several Facebook groups and  pages, some of which were administered by policemen, including "Police e  Janata, Janata e Police" and "Salute to BD Police," according to the  report.