Sofian Khan
Today, a Dhaka court has summoned columnist Farhad Mazhar and his wife Farida Akhter on charges brought by police. According to their counsel Syed Zainul Abedin Mezbah, the couple is ordered to appear before a metropolitan magistrate on January 30. They are charged by the Police with misleading the law enforcement personnels by providing wrongful information. A vigorous government critic, Farhad was identified on a bus in Jessore while travelling from Khulna to Dhaka, after 18 hours he went missing from the capital on July 3. His family was accused in a police complaint, which later was recorded as a case, that he was abducted after he had eft home early that morning. On November 14, investigators filed their report with the court, where they said no truth was found in the claim that the columnist had been abducted and sought permission to prosecute the columnist’s wife for filing a false report – reports BDnews24.com. On December 7, a Dhaka metropolitan magistrate held a hearing over the probe report and accepted the police’s plea to start a case against the couple. The couple will face maximum seven years in jail as well financial penalties if found guilty.