Prothom Alo journo Shams taken to court after 30 hours of picking up

Prothom Alo Staff Reporter (Savar Correspondent) Samsuzzaman Shams has been taken to a Dhaka court this morning, 30 hours after he was picked up from his Savar residence near Jahangirnagar University.

Shams was brought to the court of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Dhaka around 10:30am on Thursday. His lawyer Prashanta Karmakar confirmed this information to media. 

Deputy Commissioner of Ramna Division Md Shahidullah said he was shown arrested under Ramna Model Police Station in a case and sent to a Dhaka court.

A case was filed against Shams under the Digital Security Act at Ramna police station on Wednesday night after more than 20 hours of picking him up from his home. In the lawsuit, Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman is the main accused. 

Shams was shown arrested in the case filed under Ramna police station, an officer of DMP's prosecution division told the media.

On early Wednesday, 14 to 15 people in plaincloths claimed to be CID officials went to the journalist's house in Ambagan area near Jahangirnagar University in Savar and picked him up at around 4:30am.

Another case was filed by a ruling party's youth wing leader with Tejgaon police station on early Wednesday against Shams.

On the independence day (March 26), when a report by Prothom Alo's online version was published on Facebook, a card (photo story) was created quoting day labourer Zakir Hossain.

Although the media house mentioned Zakir Hossain's name in the caption along with his speech "... need independence of food", a picture of a child was used by mistake instead of Zakir, according to Prothom Alo.

The inconsistency was noticed 17 minutes after the post made public and was quickly pulled down, Prothom Alo claimed.

However, the content of widely reached Bangla national daily went viral in social media platforms within minutes. 

Prothom Alo also claimed that the report was revised and later published online with the mention of the correction. The daily also stated that no where in the report it was mentioned that the statement was from the child; rather, it was clearly stated that the quote is from Zakir Hossain, a day labourer.

Shams, 37, is the younger brother of slain Assistant Superintendent of Police Robiul Karim, who was killed during the deadly terrorist attack at  Holey Artisan Bakery when he tried to enter the cafe to foil the attackers. He was an assistant commissioner of the Detective Branch (DB) of police then.