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A Dhaka court has set November 5 as the new deadline for submitting the investigation report in the murder case filed over the death of popular actor Salman Shah.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Jewel Rana set the deadline after CID Inspector Mujibur Rahman, the investigation officer, sought more time to complete the probe. SI Shah Alam of the prosecution department confirmed the development.
The report was originally scheduled to be submitted on Tuesday.
The case names 11 people as accused, including Salman Shah’s wife Samira Haque, her mother Latifa Haque Leo alias Lucy, and actor Ashraful Haque Don, who are accused of conspiring to kill the actor.
The case came back into focus following the arrest of accused actor Don at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on August 9. Immigration police arrested him and later handed him over to the CID. He was sent to jail the same day.
On August 20, investigating officer Mujibur Rahman sought seven days’ remand for Don. After a hearing on August 27, the court granted five days’ remand. He was subsequently sent to jail on September 9 and has remained there since.
Earlier, on August 12, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court rejected his bail petition.
Salman Shah’s mother, Neela Chowdhury, filed the present case through her brother Mohammad Alamgir Kumkum on October 20 last year, alleging that her son had been murdered.
The complaint alleges that the accused and unidentified fugitives conspired to kill Salman Shah on September 6, 1996.
Salman Shah, whose real name was Chowdhury Mohammad Shahriar Emon, was found dead at his flat in Dhaka’s Eskaton area on September 6, 1996. He was one of the country’s most popular film actors at the time.
His father, Komruddin Ahmed Chowdhury, initially filed an unnatural death case. Later, alleging that his son had been murdered, he sought to have the case converted into a murder case.
The court subsequently ordered the CID to investigate the death and the murder allegation.
On November 3, 1997, the CID submitted a final report concluding that Salman Shah had died by suicide.
His father rejected the finding and filed a revision petition. On May 19, 2003, the court ordered a judicial inquiry.
After an investigation lasting about 11 years, Metropolitan Magistrate Imdadul Haque submitted the judicial inquiry report on August 3, 2014. The report also rejected the murder allegation.
After Salman Shah’s father died, his mother continued to pursue the case. On February 10, 2015, she filed a naraji petition challenging the judicial inquiry report and named 11 people whom she suspected of involvement in her son’s death.
The case was later investigated by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), but the Special Judge Court-6 in Dhaka ordered RAB to stop the investigation on August 21, 2016, following an objection from the prosecution.
The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) then took over.
After about four years of investigation, the PBI submitted its final report on February 25, 2020, saying it had found no evidence supporting the allegation that Salman Shah had been murdered.
The PBI said it examined statements from 54 witnesses connected to the incident and analysed the seized evidence. According to its report, none of the evidence supported the murder allegation.
The report concluded that Salman Shah had taken his own life amid emotional distress linked to family problems.
Salman Shah’s mother rejected the PBI findings and sought a further investigation into the circumstances surrounding her son’s death.
On October 31, 2021, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Mamunur Rashid took cognisance of the PBI report and discharged the accused.
The family later filed a revision petition before the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court. The petition was admitted on June 12, 2022, but its hearing was delayed for various reasons.
On October 20 last year, Dhaka’s Sixth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Jannatul Ferdous Ibn Haque allowed the revision petition filed by Salman Shah’s mother.
The court directed that the allegations raised by his father and the statement of Rizvi Ahmed alias Farhad be incorporated into a murder case and ordered Ramna Model Police Station to investigate the allegations and submit a report.
The current investigation is being conducted pursuant to that order.The new deadline for submitting the investigation report is November 5.
