Bangladesh News

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Tarique Rahman yesterday filed three separate defamation suits against Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina, General Secretary Abdul Jalil and Joint General Secretary Obaidul Quader, accusing them of conducting ‘malicious campaign’ against him.

After hearing the petitioner, Metropolitan Magistrate AJM Abdullah Hel Baqui, ordered judicial inquiry into all the three cases without taking the matter into direct cognisance.

Enraged by the order, more than 200 BNP-backed lawyers tried to create pressure on the magistrate to issue summons upon the AL president and her two close aides, but the magistrate stuck to his order despite the chaotic situation created by them that lasted for nearly half an hour.

In the complaint against Sheikh Hasina, Tarique mentioned that she (Hasina) told a public meeting at Paltan Maidan on November 3, “The son of 4-party alliance chief drives Tk 2 crore car, wears suit worth lakh taka and squanders thousands of crore taka in gambling abroad,” and “A syndicate of 2 lakh and 86 thousand crore taka is being run at Hawa Bhaban.”

In the charge against Obaidul Quader, the complainant said he (Quader) at a press briefing on November 4 said ” The New York Stock Exchange has awarded Tarique Rahman with a medal. How much taka is needed to get it, what is the source of this money, people want to know.” Quader also said “people want to know what Tarique Rahman carried in 435 suitcases and bags on his trip to Saudi Arabia for performing the Umrah? Why and how the Malaysian government has confiscated the money of Tarique?”

Tarique quoted AL general secretary as telling the newsmen on November 16, “Apu, APS of Tarique Rahman, met the inspector general of police (IGP) and pressurised him for the posting of 15 BNP party men as officers-in-charge (OCs) to the police stations of Gopalganj, Faridpur, Shariatpur and Madaripur districts.”

The petitioner said that all these widely published and telecast statements of the AL leaders, are false and baseless aiming to undermine his political image.

Addressing a press conference at Hawa Bhaban, the BNP chairperson’s office in Banani, Tarique’s lawyer Barrister Nawshad Jamir and Barrister Nasiruddin Washim told the journalists that AL Chief Sheikh Hasina, General Secretary Abdul Jalil and Joint General Secretary Obaidul Quader had been making defamatory statements against Tarique Rahman for a long time.

Asked which portion of Hasina’s remark is defamatory, Jamir said they have recorded them in their suits.”