Bangladesh: Hindu activist Rakesh Roy sentenced to 7 years in jail over ‘blasphemy’ case

On Tuesday, January third, a former chief of a Hindu group was sentenced to seven years in jail in Bangladesh over an alleged ‘blasphemous’ Facebook publish shared in 2017.

Rakesh Roy, a Bangladeshi Hindu and the organising secretary of Bangladesh Jatiya Hindu Mohajote, was sentenced to a rigorous seven-year jail time period by Sylhet Cyber Tribunal decide Abu Kashem. In addition to serving a jail sentence, a superb of Taka 1 Lakh has additionally been imposed on him.

Notably, Rakesh Roy was arrested on June 7, 2017 after an Islamic extremist Fujayel Ahmed lodged a case in opposition to Roy on June 5, 2017 below part 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act (ICT), 2006, which is now referred to as Digital Security Act, on the Zakiganj Police Station. In his grievance, Fujayel Ahmed alleged that Rakesh Roy had insulted Prophet Muhammad in a Facebook publish.

Back in 2017, Sylhet’s Additional Superintendent of Police, Suggayan Chakma had said throughout a press convention that Rakesh Roy was arrested from Lalakhal in Jaintiapur upazila.

SP Chakma had stated {that a} screenshot of Rakesh Roy’s ‘objectionable’ Facebook publish ‘insulting’ the Prophet Muhammad had been shared extensively on-line. This led to protests in Zakiganj demanding Roy’s arrest.

However, Rakesh Roy has denied the allegations, saying that the objectionable publish was constructed from a faux account created in his identify to border him. He stated in his defence that one Abdul Aziz was trying to transform the Zakiganj Hindus. He objected to the motion, which prompted a vested group to create a false Facebook account in his identify and publish offensive feedback to border him in a false case of blasphemy.

Disappointed with the decision, Rakesh Roy’s counsel Ishtiaq Ahmed Chaudhary stated that he would enchantment to the upper courtroom.

It is notable that in 2017, a Bangladeshi American named Sitangshu Guha began a petition (now closed) to Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina searching for the discharge of Rakesh Roy. 

In the petition, Guha claimed that Rakesh Roy, who belonged to a Krishok League and Jatiyo Hindu Oikko Mahajot, was actively working to guard Hindu rights in opposition to the “vehement provocation” by an extremist named Abdul Aziz. He additional said that after Abdul Aziz was arrested, a conspiracy was hatched to border Roy in a false blasphemy case.

Furthermore, the petition emphasised the misuse of part 57 of the ICT Act to persecute and imprison members of minority communities. The petition additionally made observe of the truth that Islamists continuously disseminate rumours to incite hatred towards Hindus and different minority communities earlier than locking them up in violation of part 57 of the ICT Act. The final goal of the ICT Act’s misuse is to oust Hindus from their ancestral houses.

It is pertinent to say that part 57 of the ICT Act had been extensively criticised and even referred to as draconian. According to Section 57 of the ICT Act, anyone who revealed false, obscene, defamatory, tends to corrupt and corrupt its viewers, causes or might trigger “deterioration in law and order,” harmed the status of the state or an individual, or “causes or may cause hurt to religious belief” by content material in digital type was subjected to punishment. The ICT act was extensively used in opposition to the folks criticising the federal government, politicians in addition to in opposition to the minority communities.

The violating Section 57 was amongst 5 contentious parts of the ICT Act that the federal government in the end selected to take away in 2018. This was changed by Digital Security Act (DSA) which got here into drive from October, 2018. However, as a result of the DSA mainly included these parts with even heavier sanctions, not a lot has modified in Bangladesh, because the critics of the federal government and folks belonging to minority communities are nonetheless stuffed in jails by exploiting the legislation.