Cartoonist Kishore among 7 indicted in DSA case

A tribunal on Sunday framed charges against seven people including cartoonist Ahmed Kabir Kishore in a case filed under the Digital Security Act (DSA) on charges of spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government activities.

Dhaka Cyber Tribunal Judge Ash Shams Jaglul Hossain framed the charges and fixed April 7 for starting the trial.

Six other accused are ‘Rastrachinta’ activist Didarul Islam Bhuiyan, Shamiul Islam Khan alias Zulkarnain Saer Khan, former managing director of BLE securities Minhaj Mannan Emon, Netra News Editor Tasneem Khalil, Ashik Imran and Wahidun Nabi.

Police on June 14, last year, submitted a supplementary charge sheet against seven people, including Kishore in the case.

Afchhar Ahmed, Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit (CTTC) sub-inspector and also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet to the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's court.

However, Afchhar dropped the names of four others including US-based journalist Shahed Alam, Germany-based blogger Asif Mohiuddin, and some Philip Schuhmacher due to lack of enough evidence against them in the case.

The name of writer Mushtaq Ahmed, the main accused in the case, was dropped following his demise.

In February, police submitted a charge sheet against three of the accused, dropping the names of eight others.

Later, a Dhaka court ordered the DMP CTTC unit to further investigate all the 11 accused in the case.

May 6 last year, RAB filed the case against the 11 people with Ramna police station under the DSA.