Siddiqur Rahman Khan, the editor of education-based online news portal www.dainikshiksha.com was released from Dhaka Central Jail at Keraniganj on Tuesday [6 September] evening on bail granted by the Cyber Tribunal.
‘He was released from the jail at about 6:00pm,’ said Siddiqur’s journalist brother Moshiur Rahman Khan.
Cyber Tribunal acting judge Atoar Rahman granted Siddiqur bail in the afternoon in a case filed under Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act on September on August 29 for his recent reporting against a former education official.
A metropolitan magistrate’s court sent Siddiqur to jail on September 2, a day after his arrest.
Plainclothes detectives arrested the journalist at the premises of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, Dhaka on September 1 in the case filed with Ramna police station on August 29 by immediate past secondary and higher education director general Fahima Khatun, also sister of food minister Md Qamrul Islam and wife of Awami League lawmaker RAM Obaidul Muktadir Chowdhury. Detective men have also taken away computers and some documents from the Dainikshiksha.com office at city’s Maghbazar area on September 1.
Siddiqur was the lone accused in the case filed for six reports published between June 14 and August 14.
A number of journalists, online activists, rights activists and opposition activists have been arrested under the act in the past few years, sparking huge controversy over the law.
According to the human rights organisation Odhikar, at least 59 people have been arrested under the act between January 2014 and July 2016.
