Case filed against Palak under Cyber Security Act
- Last Update : 02:49:34 pm, Thursday, 22 August 2024
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Staff Correspondent
A case has been filed against former state minister of ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak under the Cyber Security Act on charge of “spreading false information and tarnishing the image of state.”
Being the plaintiff, one Md Sohag Mallick filed the case at the court of Dhaka’s Cyber Tribunal judge AM Zulfiqar Hayat on Thursday (August 22).
It was stated in the case statement that the accused is a conscious citizen of Bangladesh who violated laws. He was former state minister of ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak. During the recent Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, mobile internet and broadband internet services were shut down several times which devastated the public lives and tarnished the country’s image around the world. Mobile internet went off in the country at night of July 17 and broadband at 9:00pm on July 18. All kinds of internet services were stopped for five consecutive days. Mobile internet was closed for 10 days, while internet-based services on social media like Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp etc were suspended for 13 days.
Regarding the suspension of internet across the country on July 18 last, Palak said, “A vested quarter is trying to destabilise the law and order situation by spreading rumours on social media. That is why we have disconnected the internet services without any prior declaration.” “Internet services will be brought back to normal when the situation improves,” he added.
On July 24, he claimed that the internet services went off due to the damage in three data centres by fire.
However, he told different mass media on July 27 that the government did not shut down internet, rather it suddenly went off.
Then the interim government formed a preliminary committee to investigate the matter. In a report, the preliminary committee said that it found no connection between the internet shutdown and the data centre fires. “By falsely associating the internet shutdown with the damage caused to the data centre by the fire, former state minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak misled the nation and engaged in deception,” a press release said.
