A Dhaka court on Sunday granted bail to two bloggers who were detained allegedly for making derogatory comments on Allah, Prophet Muhammad (SM) and Islam hurting religious sentiments through social media. The bloggers are—Subrata Adhikari Shuvo, 24, a Master’s student of Dhaka
University and Russel Parvez, 36, a teacher at an English medium school.Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Zohirul Haque, however, did not pass any order on the bail petitions of two other bloggers—Asif Mohiuddin, 28, and Moshiur Rahman Biplob, 42, as their lawyers were absent during Sunday’s hearing.
On April 2, Detective Branch police arrested bloggers Shuvo, Russel and Biplob for their alleged involvement with the “derogatory posting”.
The next day, detectives arrested blogger Asif Mohiuddin, who had been attacked by Islamist fanatics in January following alleged postings on the Internet “comments derogatory to Islam and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)”.
Asif Mohiuddin was placed on two-day police remand in two phases for interrogation in connection with two cases, filed on the same ground.
A Dhaka court on April 10 sent the four arrested bloggers to jail denying their bail plea in two cases, filed against them for hurting religious sentiments of the people using social media.
Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Erfan Ullah passed the order after they were produced before the court on completion of their different terms of police remand.
The court also fixed April 15 for hearing on their bail petitions, submitted by their lawyers.
The bloggers’ arrest came after a group of Muslim clerics submitted a list of bloggers to the government on March 31 for their alleged involvement in writing “derogatory comments about religion”.
-With The Independent input
