A case has been filed against the editor-in-chief of bdnews24.com, acting editor of Jagonews24.com and two others under the Digital Security Act for running reports containing "misinformation" on misappropriation of OMS rice in Thakurgaon.
Mominul Islam Bhasani, president of Baliadangi upazila Sechhasebak League, filed the case against four people including Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor-in-chief and managing director of bdnews24.com, and Mohiuddin Sarker, acting editor Jagonews24.com, with Baliadangi police station on Friday night.
The two other accused are, Shawan Amin and Rahim Shuvo.
Baliadangi police station Officer-in-Charge Habibul Haque Prodhan, confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune on Sunday.
According to the plaintiff, local authorities recovered 68 sacks of rice meant for selling among the poor at Tk10 per kg in the area on April 8. Following which, on the same day, Upazila Food Controller Nikhil Chandra Barman filed a case with the same police station accusing some.
“Shawan and Shuvo from their Facebook accounts posted my picture with ‘thief’ written on it. This severely tarnished my party’s image as well as defamed me,” Mominul said.
On April 9, online news portals, bdnews24.com and Jagonews24.com ran reports with false information regarding my involvement with the OMS rice misappropriation incident.
“I even arranged a press briefing in my upazila and requested the two online news portals not to run false stories and gave them a rejoinder. But they didn’t respond to that. Thus I was forced to take legal action against them,” added Mominul.
