HC defers hearing on defamation case against ex-Gazipur mayor

The High Court on Tuesday deferred the proceedings of a defamation case filed against former mayor of Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) Jahangir Alam.

A bench of Justice ASM Abdul Mobin and Justice SM Masud Hossain Dolon passed the order after hearing a petition to have the case filed in Faridpur earlier thrown out. Lawyer AKM Rahman stood for the former mayor.

Alam is currently out on bail in the case filed against him for making derogatory and misleading comments on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the War of Liberation.

Although elected as an Awami League candidate, Alam's time in office was cut short after a leaked video of him in conversation with some senior leaders of the party's Gazipur district unit emerged in September 2021.

His statements in that video got him suspended from the party at first, and eventually, the government sacked him as mayor as well.

Then a Faridpur court on 31 August this year issued an arrest warrant for the former mayor after one Ataur Rahman, organising secretary of 'Manobik Bangladesh Society', filed a defamation case.

Besides Faridpur, the former mayor faced several cases on the same allegation in Rajbari, Gazipur, Naogaon, Madaripur, Gopalganj and Panchagarh.