Bangladesh journalist arrested over alleged circulation of manipulated image

A journalist in southeastern Bangladesh was arrested Tuesday under the Pornography Control Act, 2012, after police accused him of circulating a manipulated image of an Indigenous woman.

Saikat Ranjan Chowdhury, general secretary of the Rangamati Journalist Union and DBC Television’s district correspondent, was arrested near the Rangamati District Council gate around 2:30 p.m., according to Md Shafiqul Islam, additional commissioner and chief of the Detective Branch.

Shafiqul said the woman filed a case with Shahbagh Police Station after a local man allegedly received an image showing her face superimposed on another body.

Police said the man told investigators Chowdhury had sent him the image. Chowdhury said he received it from another source.

Police brought Chowdhury to Dhaka because the phones could not be forensically examined in Rangamati. He remained in Detective Branch custody for questioning.