Salman Shah Murder: Don gets no lawyer, lands in jail
Collage: Bangladeshi film icon Salman Shah and Ashraful Haque Don
Ashraful Haque Don, the villain actor arrested in the case over the murder of film actor Salman Shah, has been sent to jail. After the hearing, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jewel Rana ordered him to be sent to jail on Sunday. However, no lawyer appeared on his behalf.
On the day, when the accused was produced before the court, Police Inspector Arifur Rahman of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) applied to keep him in custody. The application strongly opposed his bail, stating that the investigation into the case is ongoing. The accused had been on the run for a long time. He needs to be interrogated intensively. If the accused gets bail, it could disrupt the investigation and he may flee permanently.
Later, he was brought to the dock under police escort. At that time, Public Prosecutor (PP) Omar Faruk Faruki of the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Court prayed for him to be sent to jail. However, Don stood silent in the dock. As there was no lawyer on his behalf, no bail hearing took place. Later, the court ordered him to be sent to jail.
Earlier, he was arrested at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport by Immigration Police. He was then handed over to the CID. Prior to this, on October 20, the court had ordered that the unnatural death case filed over Salman Shah's death be treated as a murder case. Following that order, that midnight, Salman Shah's mother Neela Chowdhury, through her brother Mohammad Alamgir Kumkum as the complainant, filed a murder case. The case named 11 people as accused, including his ex-wife Samira Haque and villain Don.
The other accused in the case are: Samira Haque's mother Latifa Haque Lucy, businessmen Aziz Mohammad Bhai, Debit, Javed, Faruk, Rubi, A. Sattar, Saju, and Rezvi Ahmed alias Farhad.
On September 6, 1996, actor Salman Shah's body was recovered from his residence in Eskaton, Dhaka. At that time, his father Kamaruddin Ahmed Chowdhury initially filed an unnatural death case. Later, on July 24, 1997, an application was made to convert the complaint into a murder case. The court directed the CID to investigate the matter. After investigation, the CID submitted a final report to the court on November 3, 1997, which described the incident as a suicide. Later, on November 25 of that year, the final report was accepted by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka. However, Kamaruddin Ahmed Chowdhury filed a revision petition rejecting the report.
On May 19, 2003, the court sent the case for judicial inquiry. After a long 11 years, on August 3, 2014, Metropolitan Magistrate Imdadul Haque submitted the judicial inquiry report to the court, which also described Salman Shah's death as unnatural. After Kamaruddin Ahmed Chowdhury's death, his mother Neela Chowdhury was included as the complainant in the son's murder case. On February 10, 2015, she filed a petition of objection against the judicial inquiry report in the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court. Finally, the case was investigated by the PBI.
On October 31, 2021, the court accepted that report and disposed of the case. On June 12, 2022, a revision petition was filed against this order in the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court.
