Plaintiff television presenter Farzana Brownia has withdrawn a case filed against five people including head of news at Channel i Shykh Seraj on charge of fraud and extortion.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Saifuzzaman on Tuesday ordered to withdraw the case.
Sources said presenter Farzana Brownia submitted a prayer to the court on October 2 last to withdraw the case. Appearing at the court on that day, she gave statement claiming that the case was mutually settled.
Recording her statement, the court set Tuesday to deliver the judgement. The judge gave consent to withdraw the case and also passed an order saying that the case was resolved.
On September 25 last, presenter Farzana Brownia submitted a prayer to file a case at the Dhaka's Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Hasibul Huque. Then the court directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to submit a report probing the complaint of the plaintiff after recording her statement.
Apart from Shaykh Seraj, Awami League leader Zahir Uddin Mahmud Mamun, Mukit Mazumder Babu, Abdur Rashid Mazumder Parvez and Reaz Ahmed Khan made accused in the case.
In her case, the plaintiff stated that
she was employed as the Marketing Manager (Event) at Channel i, with a monthly salary of Tk 1 lakh. She also served as the presenter and director of the show "Swarnakishori" (Golden Youth).
The dispute arose in 2018 during the quota reform movement, when she publicly supported students involved in the protests.
On October 11, 2018, she was abruptly banned from the television channel without formal notice. When she verbally protested, the accused informed her that she would continue receiving her salary until she was officially dismissed in writing.
Based on this understanding, Brownia claimed she was owed Tk 79 lakh in unpaid wages for the period from October 2018 to September 2024.
After sending a legal notice through her lawyer, the accused did not respond and instead allegedly threatened her, demanding Tk 50 crore as extortion.
