Sedition charges filed against BNP leader and three others

A Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against four, including Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman, in a sedition case.Dhaka Metropolitan sessions judge Kamrul Hossain Mollah passed the order, setting January 15 to start recording depositions of the witnesses in the case, additional public prosecutor Tapas Kumar Paul told newsmen.The other three accused have been identified as former ETV chairman Abdus Salam, private TV channel’s former chief reporter Mahathir Faruki and its former senior reporter Kanak Sarwar.Of the four, all but Salam are on the run. The court on October 23 issued arrest warrant against the three fugitives after taking the charges into cognizance.Police filed the case on January 8, 2015, for live broadcasting of Tarique’s speech from London on January 5, 2015, threatening the country’s sovereignty and trying to create hatred towards an elected government.After probing the allegations, police filed a charge-sheet on September 6, 2016. Police added names of Mahathir and Kanak during filing of charge-sheet.