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Kurigram journo ‘falls victim to DC’s vendetta’

He was picked up at midnight, jailed for a year


Published : 14 Mar 2020 10:06 PM | Updated : 05 Sep 2020 04:16 AM

A Kurigram-based journalist of Dhaka Tribune, Ariful Islam, has been jailed allegedly because of personal vendetta of the district deputy commissioner, Sultana Pervin.

Family of Ariful alleged that members of law enforcement agencies led by a magistrate broke open the door of their house in the wee hours of Saturday and picked him up. The mobile court later took him to the deputy commissioner’s office and sentenced him to one year in jail claiming that they found half a bottle of liquor and 125gm of cannabis in his house.

Ariful, the district correspondent of the national English broadsheet, was later sent to Kurigram district jail with the sentence order.
Ariful’s wife Mostarima Nitu said he was jailed without any fault as he earned wrath of Sultana Pervin, administrative head of the district, by publishing reports on her abuse of power and irregularities. She said Ariful wrote a report on an attempt by Sultana Pervin to name a renovated pond after her and another report on irregularities in recruitment in the DC office.

Amid the allegations raised by the family, the government has started an investigation to look into if the deputy commissioner abused power in the awarding of jail term to the newsman.

Rangpur Divisional Commissioner KM Tariqul Islam has sent an additional deputy commissioner to Kurigram for the investigation at the instruction of the Cabinet Division of the government.

Nitu told newsmen that said a group of people knocked at the door of their residence in the district town around 12:30 am.

“Later, 7-8 people in Ansar uniform entered the house by breaking open the door and started beating Arif. At the time, 40 to 50 other people were standing outside our house. They were also guarding other houses so that no one could come to Arif’s help,” she added.

According to a Dhaka Tribune report, Arif’s wife called Kurigram Sadar police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mahfuzur Rahman during the raid and informed him about the matter.

“He (OC) said no police personnel were sent to the house and that he was looking into the matter,” the report quoted Nitu as saying.

Arif was escorted directly to the deputy commissioner’s office where the mobile court sentenced him around 2:00 am, Nitu added.

Describing as false and fabricated the statement of the mobile court that Arif was possessing liquor and drugs, she said he does not use wine or drugs. “He is a non-smoker and doesn’t even chew betel.”

Nitu said, “They (mobile court) said they recovered half a bottle of liquor and 125gm of cannabis from our house. They did not search our house, let alone finding any drugs. How can they convict him?”

Ariful was getting threats for his earlier reports which went against Deputy Commissioner Sultana Pervin, she said. “The whole incident is the manifestation of vengeance.”

Meanwhile, newsmen in Kurigram and elsewhere vented their anger over the incident. Kurigram Press Club General Secretary Ataur Rahman Biplab said they called an emergency meeting to discuss the matter.