The Appellate Division on Sunday cleared the way for the Detective Branch of Police to resume probe into a case filed under the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006 against internationally acclaimed photojournalist and activist Shahidul Alam.
A five-judge bench, chaired by chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, dismissed Shahidul’s petition filed in March seeking permission to appeal against a High Court’s judgement.
The High Court’s verdict given in December 2021 was also cleared the way to resume the DB’s probe in the repealed ICT’s Section of the 57, observing that Shahidul’s writ petition was not maintainable since the proceedings of a criminal case could not be quashed on the basis of a writ petition.
Shahidul, now 66, was allegedly tortured in custody after he was picked up on midnight of August 4, 2018, by the police in plainclothes from his Dhanmondi residence in Dhaka without showing any warrant.
Fifteen hours after he was picked up, the Detective Branch of police filed a case against him under Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act 2006, alleging that he, in an interview with Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television, had ‘spread false information, tarnishing the image of the nation, and deteriorating law and order’ during the then road safety protests by students in July 2018.
Former attorney general Fida M Kamal argued that the probe against Shahidul in the repealed section of ICT’ 57 could not continue as the Digital Security Act 2018 allowed the proceedings of ICT cases, which are now pending with the cyber tribunals.
As Shahidul’s case was under investigation, it could not be treated pending with the cyber tribunal, Fida argued.
Attorney general AM Amin Uddin opposed the argument, stating that Shahidul’s case should be treated as pending with the cyber tribunal in the capital, as a criminal case is initiated after filing a first information report with a police station and it was then considered as pending with the court.
Amin also referred to the Appellate Division’s verdict delivered in the money laundering case filed against BNP vice senior chairperson Tarique Rahman, clearing the way for resuming his trial following a repealed Act.
The ICT’s section 57 was considered to be repealed immediately after the Digital Security Act 2018 came into effect on October 8, 2018, said the section 61(1) of the DSA act.
The High Court on March 14 in 2019, after hearing Shahidul’s writ petition, stayed the investigation into the case, asking the DB to explain why the probes under the repealed Section 57 of ICT Act should not be declared illegal and contradictory to the Section 61(2) of the Digital Security Act 2018.
Shahidul’s lawyers contended that the Section 61(2) allowed only continuation of trials proceedings, which have been pending with the Cyber Crimes Tribunals but the case against Shahidul was not reached at the trial stage because it was being investigated by the DB.
The High Court in the verdict of December 13, 2021, allowed the DB to resume the probe after rejecting the writ petition filed by Shahidul challenging the proceedings against him.
