He said this after filing a defamation case against Debapriya and four others yesterday.

Blasting Debapriya as a 'black sheep', Mahmudur Rahman said, "They [CPD] brought a false allegation against me, that I was a collaborator in 1971." He was speaking to reporters on the court premises after filing the case.

Giving details on his activities in 1971, he said, "I would like to inform you that I was an HSC student of Dhaka College in 1971 and, in support for the Liberation War, I did not sit for the examination as it was held under the supervision of the Pakistan Army."

Referring to Debapriya, he said, "One who speaks ill of his motherland, is called a black sheep. I don't have any words to comment on such a person, who terms the country 'a bad commodity'."

He further said, "They [CPD] have tarnished my image. Since I am trying to bring investments to the country and trying to improve the image of the country, by bringing the dirty and shameful allegation against me they have also destroyed the image of the country."

In an interview with the BBC Bangla Service yesterday, Mahmudur told journalists that procedures of filing a civil suit against the five CPD leaders was under way after the issuance of arrest warrants in the criminal defamation case.

Imposing such fake statement against a person cannot be left unchallenged, he added.

He said he was not present at the press conference and he filed the case based on media reports.

"The newspapers only covered the press conference, if there were any dissimilarities between the fact and the news, the newspapers have to publish a rejoinder," Mahmudur said.

Names of the accused were in the newspapers, he said. Since newspapers quoted Syed Manzur Elahi, he took his name into cognisance. Manzur was the main accused while the other four who were present at the conference were shown co-accused in the case.