Suspended police Inspector Mahmud fined Tk 5 lakh

A Dhaka court has fined suspended police Inspector Mahmud Saiful Karim alias Saif Amin Tk 5 lakh in a case filed for making derogatory remarks on social media about parliament whip Shamsul Haque Chowdhury.

Judge Julfiqer Hayat of the Cyber Tribunal passed the order on Monday. 

Mahmud will have to serve 18 months in jail if he fails to pay the fine, the court said in its verdict. 

The parliament whip Shamsul’s lawyer Mohammad Haider Tanviruzzaman confirmed the matter to Jago News. 

On September 25, 2019, Shamsul filed the case against Mahmud under the Digital Security Act.

On September 26, Mahmud was suspended by the police headquarters five days after his Facebook post where he claimed that the whip and some police officials collected money from a gambling racket in Chattogram. He had claimed whip Shamsul Haque Chowdhury, also general secretary of Chattogram Abahani Limited, has collected Tk 180 crore over the last five years.

On February 10, 2020, Inspector Md Najmul Nishat of police’s Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit submitted a probe report in this case.