A case has been filed against Kaushik Hossain Taposh and his wife Farzana Munni, including five others, for allegedly taking over the ownership of private television channel 'Gunbangla' by threatening them with weapons and beating them.
The case was reported from court sources on Friday. Tapas is the managing director (MD) of Television and Munni is the chairman.
It is learned that Syed Shams Uddin Ahmed filed the case in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Chanaullah of Dhaka on November 25. The court accepted the plaintiff's statement and ordered the OC of Gulshan Police Station to accept the complaint as a complaint.
The other accused in the case are Ravi Shankar Maitree, M Amanullah Khan (Chanchal Khan), Syed Nabil Ashraf. Apart from this, 4 more unidentified people have been named as accused in this case.
The case's investigation officer, Gulshan Police Station Sub-Inspector Harunur Rashid, filed a request to show Taposh arrested on November 4. A hearing on the arrest will be held on December 9 in the presence of Taposh.
The plaintiff in the case, Syed Sams Uddin Ahmed, alleged that on July 25, 2011, Md. Badruddoza Sagar, Bakhtiar Sikder and Robi Shankar Maitree together registered a company called Birds Eye Mass Media and Communication PLC with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms to establish a private satellite television channel. During the formation of the company, the plaintiff in the case took 7,000 initial shares and Bakhtiar Sikder, Robi Shankar Maitree and Badruddoza Sagar took 1,000 each, for a total of 10,000 shares, the initial capital of which was set at Tk 1 crore. On December 22, 2011, Syed Sams, while serving as the Chairman and Managing Director of Birds Eye Mass Media and Communication PLC and Managing Director of GaanBangla Satellite Television Channel (Proposed), went to Amanullah Khan's house. He went to that house at the request of the accused Robi Shankar and Amanullah Khan.
The case alleges that around 8 pm, four or five unidentified people including accused Kaushik Hossain Tapas, Farzana Munni, Syed Nabil Ashraf arrived there with some papers. Tapas and Nabil Ashraf threatened them with weapons and, with the help of all the accused, Syed Shams Uddin Ahmed and Md. Badruddoza Sagar were asked to sign the papers in a film style.
The complaint further states that during the detention, the plaintiff understood from the defendants' conversations that the defendants would embezzle the ownership of 8,000 shares of the plaintiff and Badruddoza Sagar in a company called Birds Eye Mass Media and Communication PLC. At one stage, the plaintiff and Md. Badruddoza Sagar, fearing for their lives, signed the papers to save their lives. After taking the signatures, the defendants threatened that if anyone leaked any information about the signing of various documents, they would illegally influence the then administration and get involved in a case and, if necessary, end their lives.
It is worth mentioning that Taposh was arrested from Uttara in the capital on November 4. During the anti-discrimination student movement, he was arrested in a case of attempted murder of a businessman named Ishtiaq Mahmud and taken on remand. He is currently in jail.
