A court in Dhaka has denied bail to Barrister Mainul Hosein in a case filed under the recently-enacted Digital Security Act for hurling abuses at a female journalist on live television.
On Monday (Nov 5), a metropolitan magistrate turned down the bail plea after hearing arguments by the prosecution and defence.
On Oct 24, one Sumona Akter Lily, a member of the Awami League’s sub-committee for youth and sports affair, filed the case when the court heard the plaintiff and ordered the police to lodge an FIR (first information report).
Mainul, who is now in jail, was formally arrested in the case on Thursday (Nov 1), when the court told police to file the probe report on Nov 29.
He has been facing intense criticism since Oct 16 when he called journalist Bhatti ‘a woman of loose morals’ in Ekattor Journal, a talk show aired live on Ekattor TV.
Mainul, is one of the sponsors of the Gano Forum chief Dr Kamal Hossain-led new alliance, Jatiya Oikya Front, with the BNP, JSD and Mahmudur Rahman Manna's Nagorik Oikya.
He was in charge of law, justice and parliamentary affairs, among others, during his term in the 2007-8 military-backed caretaker government, when Awami League chief, now the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina and BNP chief Khaleda Zia was arrested on graft charges.
A son of The Daily Ittefaq editor late Tofazzal Hossain Manik Miah, Mainul is the publisher and chief of the editorial board of English daily The New Nation.
His brother Anwar Hossain Monju, a minister in the Hasina administration, owns Ittefaq following a 2010 deal among the brothers, who have been involved in a long drawn out rivalry.
The brothers’ battle for the ownership of the prestigious daily had made headlines for years.