The accused prominent citizens are renowned economist also CPD Chairman Prof Rehman Sobhan, its Executive Director Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, CPD trustee board members -- former adviser to a caretaker government Syed Manzur Elahi, former finance minister M Syeduzzaman, and former president of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce And Industry (MCCI) Laila Rahman Kabir.

Mahmudur, however, declined to talk to any journalist from The Daily Star or the Prothom Alo. He also threatened to file another civil suit against the same persons very soon, claiming damages.

Metropolitan Magistrate Syed Mohammad Mujibul Haq issued the warrant order after Mahmudur Rahman, also adviser to the Ministry of Energy And Mineral Resources, filed the case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka at noon.

Mahmudur along with his lawyers appeared before the court around 12:30pm yesterday and filed the case alleging the accused of making defamatory statements against him at a news conference on August 8. A detail of the news conference was published in newspapers the following day.

CPD held the news conference on Tuesday after the BoI chief had made brash remarks about it while speaking at a meeting with the members of Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) at the National Press Club on Sunday, where he branded the civil society think-tank as 'a conspirator and a shameless liar' and accused it of maligning the country and of making Bangladesh's economic development 'complex'.

Mahmudur in his lawsuit complained that the accused made libellous, disgraceful, indecent, misleading, conspiratory, false, fabricated and baseless statements against him.

The statements were published prominently in two national dailies -- the News Today and the daily Inqilab, he told the court.

The BoI chief also alleged that the accused tarnished his image and the image of the country as well, by providing false and defamatory statements to different national dailies.

The accused prominent citizens told journalists yesterday that they heard about the filing of the case against them but had yet to get any order or document in connection with it. They however decided to file a petition with the High Court this morning seeking anticipatory bail. Dr M Zahir, Mainul Husein, Mahmudul Islam, Rokanuddin Mahmud, Amir-Ul Islam, Shahdeen Malik and Tanzib-ul-Alam will represent them as their counsels in the court.

"I know nothing," was the reaction of CPD Chairman Rehman Sobhan as he was asked about the case and arrest warrants. Rehman Sobhan and other prominent citizens were attending a consultation meeting of Nagorik Committee 2006, formed for preparing a vision paper for Bangladesh in 2021.

"I heard about it but have yet to get any order or paper," said Debapriya Bhattacharya. Asked about the next step of CPD, its executive director said, "Let us get the information formally, then we will think about it."

"When I was coming to this meeting, I heard that a case was filed against me and a warrant of arrest was also issued," Laila Rahman Kabir told journalists while attending the consultation meeting in the Cirdap auditorium.

The BoI chief also alleged that the CPD board members while addressing the press conference on Tuesday termed him as a 'rajaker' (a collaborator with the invading Pakistani army during the War of Independence in 1971).

But, the CPD trustee board members categorically denied the allegation saying no such word was uttered by anyone in the press conference. "I did not call him a collaborator,” Manzur Elahi said.

"What can I do if somebody files cases against me unnecessarily,” Elahi said when asked about why Mahmudur had filed the case against him. "I don't know what crime I committed," he said.

Mahmudur Rahman while talking to some journalist in his office yesterday afternoon claimed that he had filed the case as a 'common citizen' and not as the BoI chief.

"I filed the case as a common citizen and the government has no relation with it," he was quoted as saying.

He also said he will bear all the expenditure of the case himself and not with government money.

He said CPD Executive Director Debapriya Bhattacharya tarnished the image of the country and underestimated it, which is, according to him 'tantamount to sedition'.

The case was filed following a fiery debate between the BoI chief and CPD on the question of foreign investment flow into Bangladesh.

At the meeting with ERF Mahmudur blasted CPD for 'trying to portray a negative image of the country with a purposeful political motive'. CPD denied the allegation and brushed aside the remarks saying that it had collected the information from survey questionnaires and official statistics.

"The remarks of the BoI executive chairman that CPD is a shameless liar and a conspirator, grossly violated the basic norms of public decorum and personal decency. We shall ignore all his crude and brash remarks on subjects beyond his competence as we feel embarrassed to discuss them" was the response of CPD executive director Debapriya Bhattacharya at Tuesday's news conference.

Shock at case Top business leaders, economists, bankers and civil society members were yesterday shocked at issuance of arrest warrant against five prominent citizens.

CPD protests distortion of Manzur Elahi's speech Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) yesterday strongly protested some daily newspapers' distorted version of some of the speeches delivered at the press conference on August 8 organised by CPD in response

TV footage shows Manzur Elahi didn't comment on Mahmudur Syed Manzur Elahi's comment, which prompted the BoI executive chairman to file yesterday's defamation suit, was not at all about Mahmudur Rahman, but a mere jocular demonstration of how unthinkingly people

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