Court of law
Odhikar's Adilur, Elan released on bail.

Odhikar's Adilur, Elan released on bail

Court of law

Human rights NGO Odhikar's secretary Adilur Rahman Khan and director Nasiruddin Elan walked out of jail on bail on Sunday.They came out of Dhaka Central Jail at Keraniganj around 7:00pm, said Subhash Kumar Ghosh, senior jail super. On October 10, the High Court granted bail to Adilur and Nasir, after they were sentenced to two years' imprisonment in a case over a "distorted report" on the May 5-6, 2013 police action on a Hefajat-e-Islam rally at Dhaka's Motijheel.

On September 14, the cyber tribunal in Dhaka sentenced Adilur and Nasir for two years in a case filed under Section 57 of the now defunct ICT Act.

This was the maiden case filed under the ICT Act. In 2013, Odhikar published a report on its website that claimed 61 people were killed at a Hefajat rally at Shapla Chattar in the capital following a clash between the activists and law enforcement agencies on May 5, 2013.

Detective Branch (DB) sub-inspector Ashraful Islam filed a general diary at Gulshan Police Station on August 10 in the same year. The GD was later registered as a case.

On September 4 of the same year, DB inspector Ashraful Alam submitted a charge sheet against Adilur and Nasir to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka.

In 2014, the court framed charges against the two accused and ordered the trial to begin.

The court was supposed to deliver the verdict on September 7 this year after the arguments of the prosecution and the defence ended on August 24.

On that day, the court referred the pronouncement of the verdict to September 14 as its verdict was not ready.