Dhaka: The High Court will pass its order on 18 October on a suo moto rule over the sentence awarded to a schoolboy by a mobile court in Sakhipur upazila of Tangail for allegedly threatening a local MP through Facebook.

An HC bench of Justice Enayetur Rahim and Justice Ashish Ranjan Das fixed the date on Tuesday on completion of hearing the statements of Sakhipur upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) and executive magistrate Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge Mohammad Maksudul Alam and convicted Class-IX student Sabbir Shikder, reports UNB.

Earlier, on 20 September, the same HC bench summoned the UNO and the OC to explain as to why the jail term awarded by the UNO to the schoolboy for allegedly posting write-ups threatening local MP Anupam Shajahan Joy on Facebook should not be declared illegal.

The court passed the suo moto order and asked them to appear before the court today (Tuesday) to explain the matter following the publication of a report in an English daily.

The HC also granted bail to convict Sabbir Shikder, a student of Protima Bonki Public High School in the upazila, following a petition filed by his lawyer and asked him to appear before the court today.

Earlier, Supreme Court lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan drew the HC bench’s attention to the report headlined ‘Boy jailed for FB comment about MP’ published in The Daily Star.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Sabbir claimed that two policemen called him out of his house at about 9:00pm on 16 September and took him to the police station following a general diary filed by the MP.

Later, he was taken to the MP’s residence where Joy allegedly assaulted him physically.

Sabbir was again taken to the police station and tortured there. He claimed that the law enforcers forced him to sign a statement threatening to put him on ‘crossfire’.

On 17 September, a mobile court, led by Executive Magistrate Mohammad Rafiqul Islam of Sakhipur upazila, sentenced Sabbir Shikder to two years’ imprisonment on charge of uploading the message on the Facebook threatening Anupam Shajahan Joy, MP from Tangail-8 (Basail-Sakhipur) constituency.

According to the GD, Sabbir, son of Shahinoor Alam of Protima Bonki village, wrote in the MP’s Facebook account: ‘Your time is going to end.’

SC lawyer Khurshid Alam said the mobile court awarded two years’ imprisonment to the boy based on the GD and without any investigation, which is not right.