A Hindu girl, who is a university student, gets five years in jail over blasphemy charges.
Tithi Sarkar was a student at Jagannath University. Muslim students of the university alleged that Tithi made derogatory comments about Nabi Muhammad on the social media platform Facebook. They agitated on the campus and demanded to expel Tithi.
Due to this, university management expelled Tithi. Later, Abu Musa Rifat filed a written complaint against Tithi Sarkar. In the complaint, it is alleged that Tithi made derogatory comments about Nabi Muhammad, and she hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslim community.
Based on the complaint, the police arrested Tithi Sarkar and his husband, Shipul Mallick, on the 11th of November, 2023.
During their trial in the Cyber Tribunal, Dhaka, Justice Julfikar Hayat found Tithi Sarkar guilty. But, the tribunal couldn’t find anything against her husband, Shipul Mallick. So, the Tribunal acquitted her husband.
On the 13th of May, 2024, Justice Julfikar Hayat sentenced Tithi Sarkar to 5 years in jail.
However, after the judgement, several Hindu activists have raised objections. They are saying that the Cyber Tribunal discriminated against a Hindu student. They are pointing out the case of Iqbal, who was sentenced to only 16 months in jail.
In 2020, during the Durga Puja, Iqbal put a Quran inside a Puja mandap in Comilla town. Due to that, large-scale anti-Hindu riots broke out in Bangladesh. Thousands of Hindu homes were burnt, many Hindu minorities were murdered, and many mandaps were attacked. But, the Court only gave him 16 months in jail. But, in this case, the court gave brutal punishment to a female student of the Hindu minority community.
