Former Awami League MP Golam Maula Rony, who is contesting the Dec 30 polls on the BNP’s ticket, faces charges in the Digital Security Act.

A case was started late on Thursday (Dec 20) with the Patukhali’s Galachipa police.

Inspector Akthar Morshed said that local Awami League leader Mehedi Masud filed the case against Rony and five others.

Masud, who teaches at a college in Galachipa, is the joint convener of the Awami League’s local election coordination committee, said Inspector Morshed, the OC of Galachipa police station.

According to the case dossiers, Rony and his family members stand accused of staging an attack on themselves at Galachipa on Dec 15 which undermined law and order and threatened security.

Meanwhile, an audio clip of the BNP leader’s phone conversation went viral on social media and caused fear and panic among the people, which could have an adverse effect on the upcoming election, the documents read.

Rony, however, described the charges as 'baseless'.  “The police refused to file my wife’s complain and instead have framed false charges against us”, he told Bangla Tribune. 
On Dec 15, a vehicle carrying Rony’s wife Luna Akhtar and his family was attacked and vandalised while returning from a polls campaign in Galachipa. He accused Awami League supporters behind the attack and said that six people, including his wife and sister, were injured.

Rony was elected the MP from Patuakhali-3 on the Awami League’s ticket during the 2008 election.

He fought the 2014 election as an independent candidate after failing to get the Awami League’s ticket and lost.

Rony sought the ruling party’s nomination for the 11th national election slated for Dec 30 but was not named by the Awami League as a candidate this time as well.

A day after the ruling party started handing letters confirming initial approval of nomination to candidates, he joined the BNP and secured the party’s ticket to run from Patuakhali-3 seat.

In 2008, Rony emerged as the Awami League candidate after the party dropped two-time MP from the seat AKM Zahangir Hossain, who was elected in 1991 and 1996.

A former general secretary of the Awami League’s student affiliate, Zahangir was dropped from the party’s list of candidates after he was marked a reformist during the military-installed caretaker administration.

Ronycontested as an independent candidate in 2014, however, lost to Zahangir when the Awami League picked the former BCL leader for the last election.

Rony has not been an active Awami League politician since 2014, but has regularly appeared in TV talk shows.

Zahangir has been axed from the Awami League’s list of candidates again this time.

Another former local leader of the AL’s student front, SM Shahzada is contesting in the election with the party’s boat logo this time. Shahjada is a nephew of Chief Election Commissioner KM Nurul Huda.