A defamation case has been filed under section 500 of the penal code against the celebrated actress and business leader Shomi Kaiser for an ‘insulting’ exchange with journalists at National Press Club.
Mia Md Nuzhatul Hasan — editor of the Student Journal BD news portal — filed the case against Shomi, on Tuesday (April 30) at the court of Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Assaduzzaman Noor.
The plaintiff claimed, "The way she treated the journalists following the loss of her cell phones, breached all etiquette a person should show. By calling the journos thieves, Shomi defamed the people who are in this worthy vocation. For this reason he filed the case.”
Shomi, also the president of e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) and a director of country’s apex trade body Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), lost both her cell phones during a program at the National Press Club on Wednesday (Apr 24), where she was giving a speech.
Right after that incident, her security guards locked the gate and searched all the journalists and guests present there.
Around 50 journalists and more than one hundred guests were locked inside the conference room for more than half an hour following the incident.
At one point, the journalists got angry because of the way they were searched and protested. At one stage, Shomi reportedly termed the reporters “thieves” which sparked strong criticism and condemnation from journalists present there.
Later, recorded footage showed the phones were stolen by a staff who delivered the cake at the programme.