Salman Shah death case: Revision petition hearing deferred to 13 October
Senior lawyer Farooq Ahmad is currently serving as a prosecutor at ICT-2, which is why the revision hearing could not be conducted, prompting the petitioner to seek additional time.
A Dhaka court has deferred the hearing to 13 October on a revision petition filed by the mother of late film actor Chowdhury Mohammad Shahriar Emon, popularly known as Salman Shah, regarding his death.
After a hearing today (23 September), Judge Md Jannatul Ferdous Ibn Haque of Dhaka's 6th Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court fixed the new date.
According to the petition, senior lawyer Farooq Ahmad, who was appointed for the case, is currently serving as a prosecutor at International Crimes Tribunal-2 and engaged in witness examination there. For this reason, the revision hearing could not be conducted, making it necessary for the petitioner to seek additional time.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
This morning, Salman Shah's uncle Alamgir Kumkum, who was at the court, said, "When someone in a family dies, the police usually call everyone in for questioning. People are arrested and even placed on remand. But in Salman Shah's case, none of this was done.
"His body was taken down from hanging, bathed and dressed in new clothes. He had been unwell, yet no one had even informed his mother by phone. There is a mystery behind all of this."
He demanded that the real culprits be identified and brought to exemplary justice.
A death shrouded in mystery
Twenty-nine years later, questions still surround the death of Salman Shah.
On 6 September 1996, the body of the popular film star was recovered from his Eskaton residence in Dhaka. At the time, his father, Kamaruddin Ahmed Chowdhury, filed an unnatural death case.
Later, on 24 July 1997, he petitioned to convert it into a murder case. A court then directed the Criminal Investigation Department to conduct an investigation.
On 3 November 1997, the CID submitted its final report, concluding that Salman's death was a suicide. Later, on 25 November that year, the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court accepted the report.
However, Kamaruddin rejected it and filed a revision petition.
On 19 May 2003, the court ordered a judicial inquiry.
Years down the line, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Imdadul Haque submitted the judicial inquiry report on 3 August 2014, which also concluded that Salman's death was unnatural.
After Kamaruddin's death, his wife Neela Chowdhury became the plaintiff in the case, and on 10 February 2015, she filed a no-confidence petition against the judicial inquiry report with the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate's Court.
The case was later investigated by the Police Bureau of Investigation.
On 31 October 2021, the court accepted the PBI report and ordered the case to be disposed of.
However, on 12 June 2022, Neela filed a revision petition with the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court challenging that order.
Salman Shah was born on 19 September 1971 at his maternal grandparents' house in Dariapara, Sylhet. He died on 6 September 1996.
