Allegations of blasphemy have led to a five-year imprisonment sentence for a temporarily expelled student of Jagannath University (JnU) in a case under the Digital Security Act filed at the Paltan Police Station.
The Cyber Tribunal in Dhaka, headed by Judge A.M. Zulfikar Hayat, pronounced the verdict on Monday.
According to sources close to the case, last year on October 31, the Cyber Monitoring Team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) came across a false post shared on social media claiming that "Thiti Sarkar has been rescued in a tied-up condition from the fourth floor of CID`s Malibagh office". This sparked widespread controversy. However, no such incident had occurred within the CID.
During the investigation of the incident, a person named Niranjon Baral, known for spreading rumors, was arrested from the Ramna area. Additionally, charges were filed under the Digital Security Act against Niranjon and several others on November 2 at the Paltan Police Station. Mehedi Hasan, the Deputy Director of the CID Police, filed charges against both of them last year on May 19.
On October 25, at 9:00 am, Thiti Sarkar emerged from her own residence in Pallabi heading towards the police station. She remained missing for fifteen days.
It`s been reported that Thiti Sarkar had been making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) for a long time through Facebook and various social media platforms. Later, alleging blasphemy, all the student organizations and general students of Jagannath University gathered to demand the expulsion of Thiti Sarkar.
Responding to the students’ protests, the university administration temporarily expelled Thiti Sarkar on October 23. Following this, allegations arose from her family and Thiti went missing.
