A Dhaka court has framed charges against five people, including businessperson Helena Jahangir in a fraud case filed with Dhaka's Pallabi Police Station.
Four other accused are--Hazera Khatun, general manager of Helena Jahangir's IPTV "Joyjatra Television", Coordinator of the IPTV Sanaullah Nuri, chief news editor Qamruzzaman Arif and staff reporter Mahfuzur Rahman.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Tofazzal Hossain read out the charges to them on Monday, dismissing five separate petitions submitted for discharging the accused from the charges of the case.
During the hearing, the five accused, now on bail, pleaded not guilty and demanded justice.
The magistrate set May 25 for starting the trial of the case.
Earlier on November 21 last year, Inspector Shahinur Islam of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and also the investigation officer of the case, submitted a charge sheet of the case against Helena and four others to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka.
Joyjatra Television's Bhola district correspondent Abdur Rahman Tuhin filed the fraud case on August 2 last year.
In the case, it was alleged that Helena took Tk 54,000 from Abdur Rahman Tuhin of Bhola district for appointing him as a local correspondent of Joyjatra Television. As a correspondent, Rahman worked for several months but was not paid any salary. On the other hand, the television authorities took Tk 3,000 per month from him.
The law enforcers arrested Helena during a raid at her Gulshan residence in the capital on July 29 last year. She was released on bail in November last year after getting bail from different courts on different dates.
