Badrunnessa`s Teacher Ruma Put on Two-day Remand

In a case filed for spreading disinformation on social media, a Dhaka court ordered Begum Badrunnessa Government Girls College teacher Ruma Sarkar on two-day new remand.

Earlier, The Rapid Action Battalion-RAB has taken Ruma Sarkar into custody for interrogation over ‘disinformation on communal violence’ on social media.

Ruma Sarker, assistant professor of the college, shared old video footage of the May 16 murder of Shahin Uddin, a businessman of Dhaka’s Pallabi, as the recent killing of Noakhali’s Jatan Kumar Saha.

Jatan, a Durga Puja organiser, was beaten to death by religious fanatics last Friday amid a spate of attacks on Hindu homes, businesses and places of worship, leaders of the Hindu community said. Noakhali police said Jatan died of a “heart attack”.

RAB disclosed Ruma’s detention in a statement on Wednesday but did not mention when or where she was detained.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said at an event at the RAB Headquarters on Tuesday that the authorities were aware of a disinformation campaign over the death of Jatan.

Lt Col Mashiur Rahman, chief of RAB’s intelligence wing, said the video clip of Shahin’s hacking death was uploaded as Shah’s killing from India’s Kolkata.

The post was uploaded from a profile named ‘Debadrita Bhowmik’ on Facebook before another person spread it on other platforms.

Mashiur said a group is intentionally spreading such misinformation to tarnish the image of Bangladesh.

RAB said cyber and intelligence surveillance is active to gather information of those “bent on spoiling communal harmony” and involved in spreading "provocative and misleading content".