DHAKA: A defamation case of Tk 1,100 crore was filed against Jugantor, a national newspaper, by East West Property Development (Pvt) Ltd, flagship company of Bashundhara Group, and its chairman Alhajj Ahmed Akbar Sobhan.
 
The case was filed in the District Judge Court on Monday morning.
 
The complainants accused Jugantor owner Nurul Islam Babul, his wife Salma Islam, editor and publisher of the newspaper, their son Shamim Islam and executive editor Saiful Alam of publishing baseless and malicious reports.
 
Judge M Fazle Elahi Bhuiyan fixed March 31 for submitting report about summoning.
 
The case stated that Jugantor published fabricated reports against eminent persons, including businessmen, politicians, government and non-government officials and industrial organizations with ulterior motives.
 
It stated that a concocted report was published in the fourth column on the first page of the daily Jugantor, headlined ‘Bashundhara grabbed property worth Tk 50,000 crore: Minister, secretary facing allegation of taking bribe worth Tk 3,000 crore: Prime Minister’s intervention sought’ on October 28, 2013’.
 
The complainant alleged that the false reports published in the daily Jugantor maligned him and damaged the goodwill of the conglomerate in the eyes of countrymen.
 
The following day, the Bashundhara Group (BG) requested the daily to publish a rejoinder that its report was false and fabricated. The rejoinder published by the daily was not satisfactory.
 
BDST: 1355 HRS, FEB 18, 2014