A case has been filed against five people, including three officials of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL), over allegations of abusing their authority to shut down a university’s website domain.
Muhammad Tazul Islam, adviser to the University of Skill Enrichment and Technology (USET), confirmed the information at a press conference at the Court Reporters’ Unit on Thursday. He said the case was filed with a Dhaka court on Wednesday.
According to court sources, Tazul Islam filed the case with the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Hasan Shahadat.
After recording the plaintiff’s testimony, the court directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to investigate the allegations and submit a report.
The accused are Moghbazar Telephone Exchange Deputy General Manager (Broadband-2) Joyeeta Sen Rimpy, Deputy General Manager (Domain) Mostafa Al Mahmud, Assistant Manager (Domain) Abir Kalyan Abedin, Assistant Secretary (Private University-2) of the Ministry of Education’s Secondary and Higher Education Division Md Shah Alam Siraj, and Administrative Officer of the Private University Wing Md Rakibuzzaman Masud.
According to the case statement, USET, located at Signboard in Narayanganj, operates two websites — www.uset.ac.bd and www.uset.edu.bd..
On 15 April 2025, the university authorities wrote a letter to BTCL requesting that the admin panel passwords not be disclosed to any third party. On 17 November last year, the university received a letter citing domain-related objections. It asked the institution to submit all documents and pay Tk23,000 as hearing fees by 30 November.
USET submitted the documents by that date along with the pay order, but BTCL refused to accept them, claiming the deadline had expired on 27 November as per the note.
Sensing a lack of neutrality and fearing denial of justice, the university authorities filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking remedies and instructions not to suspend the domains.
Meanwhile, on 15 December, Tazul visited Rimpy’s office to discuss the matter.
The case alleges that Rimpy verbally abused him, threatened that he should never be seen again at the BTCL premises, and also warned that the university’s websites would be shut down.
Tazul sent a legal notice to the defendants on 18 December regarding the threats, refusal to receive legal documents, and non-cooperation in official procedures. The accused shut down both university domains around 4 pm on 11 January, causing “irreparable damage” to the institution, the case alleged.
