The Cyber Tribunal in Dhaka聽on Monday sentenced Tithy Sarker, a suspended student of Jagannath University, to five years imprisonment in a case filed under the Digital Security Act on November 5, 2020, for making derogatory remarks about Islam on social media.
The Digital Security Act was replaced with Cyber Security Act in 2023.
The tribunal judge AM Julfiker Hayet delivered the verdict in the presence of Tithy.
The court also granted her probation for one year on eight conditions under the Department of Social Services. She will be allowed to stay at home during the probation period.
However, a probation officer will monitor her activities. If the officer gives a satisfactory report, the court will reconsider her sentence, said bench assistant Jewel Miah.
A total of six prosecution witnesses testified in the case.
On October 23, 2020, some screenshots showing Tithy making derogatory comments about Islam and the Prophet Muhammad [Pbuh] on Facebook went viral.
However, on the same day, she filed a general diary with Pallabi Police Station, claiming that her Facebook ID was hacked.
The posts had triggered protests at the JnU where students demanded punishment of Tithy, who was a student of the 2017-18 session of the zoology department of the university.
Amid protests, Tithy was suspended from the university on October 26, 2020.
On November 5, 2020, Abu Musa Rifat, a student from Tithy鈥檚 department, filed the case with the Cyber Tribunal in Dhaka.
However, she went 鈥榤issing鈥� on October 25, 2020. Her family told journalists that she went missing in the morning that day after leaving her Pallabi home in Dhaka.
Her elder sister, Srity Rani Sarker, filed a missing person鈥檚 report with Pallabi Police Station on October 27, 2020.
Later, on November 12, Criminal Investigation Department officials said that she faked her own abduction.
The CID officials also said that after leaving her Pallabi home on October 25, Tithy contacted her boyfriend Shiplu Mallik and went to Bagerhat, where they got married. They came back to Dhaka on November 9, 2020. She later went to an in-law鈥檚 house in Narsingdi.
On November 11, 2020, police arrested Tithy from the Madhabdi area in Narsingdi and Shiplu from the Kaptan Bazar area in Dhaka.
On May 19, 2021, the CID submitted a charge sheet against the couple, while on November 4, 2021, the tribunal framed charges against Tithy discharging her husband, Shiplu Mallik, from the charges.
