Don ‘withheld important information’ in Salman Shah death case
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Despite keeping actor Ashraful Haque Don in custody for five days and questioning him, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has failed to obtain any major information about the mystery surrounding actor Salman Shah’s death.
However, the investigation officer in the high-profile case, CID Inspector Md. Mujibur Rahman, believes Don is likely to know many details about the matter as Salman Shah’s co actor and friend.
Therefore, he claims that Don has withheld a lot of important information. He may need to be questioned again. For this reason, he asked the court to keep Don in jail.
Accepting the investigation officer’s application, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jewel Rana ordered the accused Don to be sent to jail on Wednesday.
Thirty years ago, before Salman Shah’s death, Don had acted alongside him in several films as a villain. The friendship between the two was also widely known.
After Salman Shah’s death, it was initially considered a suicide and a case of unnatural death was filed. Investigations by the police, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) and the CID as well as a judicial inquiry concluded that it was a suicide.
But his mother Neela Chowdhury had a different claim. After a lengthy legal process, on October 20, 2025, the court ordered that the unnatural death case be accepted as a murder case.
Following the order, Alomgir Kুমkum, the brother of Neela Chowdhury, filed a murder case as the plaintiff. Salman Shah’s wife Samira Haque and villain Don were among 11 people named as accused in the case.
Police arrested Don from Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport on August 9. He was sent to jail. Later, on August 20, investigation officer Mujibur Rahman sought seven days of custody for Don. After hearing the application, the court ordered five days of remand on August 27.
After the remand ended, the investigation officer produced Don before the court on Wednesday. He also sought an order to keep Don in jail. The application claimed that Don was hiding a lot of information.
The investigation officer said in his application that when questioned about the absconding accused, Don admitted that he knew them but was withholding a lot of information. Yet, as a close friend of Salman Shah who used to spend time with him, he is expected to know all the details.
Besides Samira and Don, the other accused in the case are Samira’s mother Latifa Haque Lucy, businessman Aziz Mohammad Bhai, Debid, Javed, Faruk, Ruby, A. Sattar, Saju and Rezvi Ahmed alias Farhad.
The investigation officer told the court that when Don was questioned about Salman Shah’s death and the events surrounding the case, he spoke very carefully. The CID inspector claimed that as the accused is an extremely clever and cunning person, he had withheld a lot of important information.
However, CID Inspector Mujibur claimed that a lot of information indicating the accused’s involvement in the incident had been found from his behavior and movements before, during and after the incident.
Arguing for keeping Don in custody, he wrote in the application that all information obtained in connection with the case was being verified. He said the accused would be questioned again, if necessary, with the court’s permission in the interest of the investigation. Therefore, he said, Don needs to remain in custody until the investigation is completed.
The death of Salman Shah, one of the top stars of Dhallywood at the time, caused widespread shock on September 6, 1996. At the time, it was said that he had chosen suicide due to marital complications. Salman Shah’s conflict with his wife Samira over his co actress Shabnur also came under discussion.
After Salman Shah’s body was recovered hanging inside his home in Dhaka’s Eskaton area, his father, Komruddin Ahmed Chowdhury, filed an unnatural death case. Later, on July 24, 1997, an application was submitted to convert the case into a murder case.
The court ordered the CID to investigate the matter. After completing the investigation, the CID submitted its final report to the court on November 3, 1997. The report concluded that the incident was a suicide.
Later, on November 25 of that year, the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court accepted the final report. However, Komruddin Chowdhury filed a revision case rejecting the report. Later, on May 19, 2003, the court sent the case for a judicial inquiry.
After 11 years, on August 3, 2014, then Metropolitan Magistrate Imdadul Haque submitted the judicial inquiry report to the court. That report also concluded that it was a suicide.
Meanwhile, after Komruddin Chowdhury’s death, Neela Chowdhury was included as the plaintiff in the case. On February 10, 2015, she filed a no objection petition against the judicial inquiry report with the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court.
The PBI then took over the investigation. It also concluded that the incident was a suicide. On October 31, 2021, the court accepted the report and disposed of the case.
However, on June 12, 2022, Neela Chowdhury filed a revision case against the order with the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court. Then, on October 20 last year, the court ordered that the unnatural death case be accepted as a murder case. After Salman Shah’s maternal uncle Alomgir Kumkum filed the murder case, the CID was assigned responsibility for the investigation.
