A court in Kurigram has granted bail to journalist Ariful Islam who was jailed for one year by a mobile court on Saturday (Mar 14).

Kurigram Additional District Magistrate Md Sujaiuddaula gave the bail order on Sunday (Mar 15).

Ariful, the Kurigram district correspondent for Bangla Tribune and Dhaka Tribune, said that an employee of the jail went to him on Saturday night and told him to sign on a paper, saying that his family has filed a bail petition.

He added that he later got to know that his family did not file the petition.

He was given bail on Tk25,000 bond and under the custody of Kurigram Press Club President Ahsan Habib Nilu, also a lawyer. 

When asked, Advocate Sakhawat Hossain, who stood for Ariful, said Ahsan Habib appointed him for the purpose. 

On March 14, the journalist was sent to jail, soon after a mobile court, set up at the office of the Kurigram deputy commissioner (DC), ended the trial proceedings.

The mobile court in the dead of night jailed the journalist for a year, after law enforcement members led by magistrates picked him up from his home in Kurigram town.

The mobile court brought an allegation against the journalist that drugs and alcohol were recovered from his possession, which his family termed absurd.

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