DB arrests 5 for defaming S Alam owners

Police arrested five people, including a 70-year-old businessman and two minors, for allegedly pasting posters and making social media posts to defame the owners of Chattogram-based S Alam Group.

Abdul Kuddus, a deputy manager of S Alam group, filed the case with Gulshan Police Station on January 5 under the Digital Security Act.

The arrestees are businessman Mohammad Nur Un Nabi, 70; Afsar Uddin Roman, 42; and Abu Sayeed Saju, 21. The two minors are aged between 17 and 15.

The DB produced the three adult arrestees before a Dhaka court yesterday and sought a five-day remand for each.

The court, however, sent them to jail.

Kuddus in the case accused Nur and Golam Sarowar Mia, and Mazharul Islam alias Rasel. Saju and Roman had not been mentioned.

Police arrested Rasel on December 27 in another DSA case filed by an S Alam Group official with Double Mooring Police Station in Chattogram. Nur and Sarowar were accused in this case too.

Kuddus in the case said he found posters, demeaning S Alam Group, on walls and pillars behind Nafi Tower in Gulshan-1 and its adjacent areas on December 22.

Founded in 1985 by Muhammad Saiful Alam Masud Chowdhury, S Alam Group is one of the largest conglomerates in Bangladesh. It has been in the news recently for its alleged borrowing of over Tk 30,000 crore from Islami Bank, where it has 26.73 percent stakes. The amount was way beyond the group's entitlement, prompting Bangladesh Bank to appoint observers at the bank.