Court Orders Identification, Action Against Pornography Groups, Admins

A court here today ordered authorities concerned to identify and take legal action against online groups, their administrators and fraudulent networks involved in the circulation of pornography and illegal financial transactions. Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Zakir Hossain passed the order suo moto and asked to file regular case in this connection. The court came up with the order as a news report titled "Thousands of young women's nude videos sold on Telegram" was published by a media outlet on October 18.

The report was also carried by several online news portals and widely shared and discussed on social media platforms. Considering the matter of public importance, the court took cognizance of the report under Section 190(1) (c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure and accepted it for judicial consideration, the court said in its order. The court directed the Deputy Commissioner of the Cyber and Special Crime Division of the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) to appoint a competent and skilled investigation officer to identify the online pornography-related groups, their administrators, and fraudulent networks involved in financial transactions, and to take appropriate legal action against them based on the information mentioned in the report. The court also instructed that regular cases be filed in light of the findings revealed during the investigation and ordered the investigating officer to submit a progress report every 15 days.