Bangladesh spinner Arafat Sunny arrested in Dhaka
What‘s the story?
Bangladesh spinner Arafat Sunny has been arrested by local police in Dhaka on Sunday for allegedly circulating sensitive photos of a woman on social media. The 30-year old was taken to court after his girlfriend had registered a complaint under Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act at Mohammadpur Police Station on the 5th of this month.
Officer-in-charge (OC) Jamaluddin Mir confirmed, “She said Sunny opened up a fake Facebook account of hers and posted their personal photos which she found offensive and defamatory. We have arrested him and sent him to the court, seeking to take him into custody for five days for questioning.”
In case you didn’t know...
Sunny has represented Bangladesh in 16 ODIs and 10 T20Is. The canny left-arm spinner picked up 24 wickets at an average of 25 and 12 wickets at an average of 19.16 in those respective formats. His last appearance came in the 2016 World T20 wherein he was reported for a suspect action along with seamer Taskin Ahmed. Upon being cleared to bowl in September, he was reported for the same reason yet again during the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) in November.
The heart of the matter
According to local police officials, the women who filed the complaint claimed to have had a love-affair with Sunny for more than seven years. She recently married the cricketer after repeatedly requesting him to complete the formalities.
She alleged that the cricketer posted objectionable images of her, using fake Facebook accounts in June and November of last year. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Chief Executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury declined to comment and only admitted to closely monitoring the situation.
What’s next?
If those charges hold in court, Sunny could face as many as 14 years in prison and/or a fine of 10 million taka which is roughly equal to over 126,000 USD. Officer-in-charge Mir revealed to The Daily Star that preliminary investigation has found the allegations to be true.
Sportskeeda’s Take
Sunny has become the third Bangladeshi cricketer to be arrested in recent times for a domestic offence after Shahadat Hossain (and his wife for subjecting their maid to torture) and Rubel Hossain (accused of raping an actress). The two seamers were later acquitted for various reasons (in Rubel’s case, the woman went on to withdraw her complaint). It remains to be seen what lies in store for the spin bowler.