Former executive magistrate Rintu Bikash Chakma, a co-accused in a case involving the illegal detention, torture, and imprisonment of Kurigram journalist Arifur Rahman Regan, applied in the court to become an approver in the case.
He is a co-accused of former Kurigram deputy commissioner Sultana Parvin and two of her subordinate colleagues 鈥攔esident聽 deputy collector Nazim Uddin and nezarat deputy collector Rahatul Islam in the case.
Ariful Islam Regan, the Kurigram correspondent for the Bangla Tribune, filed a case with the Kurigram Chief Judicial Magistrate鈥檚 Court on March 31, 2024 alleging that he was illegally detained and tortured for a Facebook post exposing alleged corruption by then DC Sultana Parvin.
According to the case, the accused magistrates, escorted by a police team, Ansar members, and their staff members, broke into Ariful鈥檚 home around midnight on March 13, 2020 and forcibly picked him up.
He was taken to the office of executive magistrate Rahatul Islam, where he was allegedly disrobed, tortured, and photographed by magistrates Nizam Uddin and Rahatul.
Ariful claimed that he was threatened with death in a staged 鈥榗rossfire鈥� at Dharlarpar Bridge and later confined in an office room in a false narcotics case.
The alleged retaliation against Ariful followed a Facebook post titled 鈥楢ppointment Business鈥�, in which Ariful mentioned hearsay of corruption linked to the DC, published on the eve of the Mujib centenary celebrations in Kurigram.
Rintu Bikash submitted an application swearing an affidavit to the Kurigram鈥檚 Chief Judicial (Sadar ) Cognizable Court on September 18.
Rintu, in his application, stated that the mobile court procedures were misused to jail the journalist under pressure from Sultana Parvin and her subordinates Nazim and Rahatul despite there being no valid grounds for the charges.
Ariful鈥檚 lawyer, Azizur Rahman Dulu, told 抖阴精品 on Thursday that the court was scheduled to hear the charge acceptance against suspended DC Sultana Parvin and three magistrates on October 5.
The investigation officer submitted the charge sheet against the four administrative officials on July 25, and all of them are currently out on bail.
In the application, former executive magistrate Rintu Bikash Chakma claimed that he was pressured to sign off on the mobile court order that jailed journalist Ariful for one year in a false narcotics case on March 13, 2020.
Rintu stated that then RDC Nazim Uddin requested him to conduct a mobile court, citing direct instructions from former Kurigram DC Sultana Parvin.
He said that he refused to conduct the mobile court for several reasons.
Most importantly, the two magistrates allegedly tortured the victim, there was no eyewitness to the involvement of the journalist in the case involving the narcotics, there was no narcotics presented before him, and the mobile court was held inside an office room instead of the alleged scene.
鈥業 was under undue pressure from Nazim, who kept referring to orders from the DC. Eventually, I was forced to sign the custody warrant after the sentence was declared,鈥� Rintu stated.
He further stated that he witnessed a meeting between the DC and Nazim and Rahatul on March 11, 2020 before the action on the victim.
He also alleged that Raihanul Raz Dulal, an inspector of the Police Bureau of Investigation in Rangpur, demanded a bribe from him on May 8, 2025 in exchange for clearing his name during the investigation.
According to Rintu, the inspector sent a bKash number during a mobile phone conversation to facilitate the payment and submitted a pen drive along with his affidavit in support of the allegation.
Rintu claimed that although the investigation initially did not find his involvement, he was still charge-sheeted based on 鈥榝alse and misleading allegations鈥�.
He further said that the charges were filed only after he refused to meet the investigator鈥檚 unethical demands and despite the evidence that he was pressured to sign the sentencing order.
Journalist Ariful Islam was sentenced to one year in jail for allegedly possessing illegal narcotics but was released on bail a few days later following a High Court intervention.
The writ petition was moved by Harun ur Rashid, then executive editor of Bangla Tribune, seeking protection for the journalist and action against those responsible.
