The court has granted permission to exhume the remains of renowned actor Salman Shah (Chowdhury Mohammad Shahriar Imon) in the presence of an Executive Magistrate to uncover the real cause of his murder. The court has allowed the exhumation, preparation of an inquest report, and completion of an autopsy. Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jewel Rana issued this order on May 24 following an application by the investigating officer of the case.
Earlier, on May 20, the investigating officer, CID Police Inspector Ziaul Morshed, filed the application.
On Wednesday (June 10), the investigating officer, CID Police Inspector Ziaul Morshed, confirmed the matter. He said, to uncover the real cause of the murder, we applied for permission to exhume the remains (body) of renowned actor Salman Shah (Chowdhury Mohammad Shahriar Imon) in the presence of an Executive Magistrate, prepare an inquest report, and complete an autopsy. The court granted the application. After completing some formalities, we will exhume the remains, prepare the inquest report, and complete the autopsy.
Actor Chowdhury Mohammad Shahriar Imon, aka Salman Shah, died on September 6, 1996. At that time, his late father, Komor Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, filed an unnatural death case regarding the incident. Later, on July 24, 1997, he applied to convert the case into a murder case, alleging his son was killed. The court ordered the CID to investigate the murder allegation alongside the unnatural death case. The CID submitted its final report to the court on November 3, 1997. The report stated Salman Shah's death as suicide. The final report was accepted by the Dhaka CMM Court on November 25 of that year. At that time, his father, Komor Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, rejected the CID report and filed a revision petition. Most recently, on October 20 last year, Dhaka's Sixth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md. Jannatul Ferdous Ibne Haque accepted the revision filed by the plaintiff and ordered the case to be accepted as a murder case.
Following this, on October 21, Salman Shah's maternal uncle Mohammad Alamgir filed the case at Ramna Police Station in the capital. The case named 11 people, including Salman Shah's wife Samira Haq, as accused. The accused have been charged under sections 302/34 of the Penal Code.
Besides Samira, the other accused in the case are— industrialist and former film producer Aziz Mohammad Bhai, Latifa Haq Luchi, villain Don, Debit, Javed, Farooq, Ruby of May-Fair Beauty Center, Abdus Sattar, Saju, and Rezvi Ahmed Farhad. Additionally, many others have been named as unidentified accused in the case.
In the case complaint, Mohammad Alamgir stated that on September 6, 1996, his sister Nilufar Zaman Chowdhury (Nila Chowdhury), his sister's husband Komor Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, and their younger son Shahran Shah went to Salman Shah's house in New Eskaton to see him. Upon arrival, they learned that Salman was sleeping.
After a while, production manager Selim called and informed them that something had happened to Salman. They quickly returned home and saw Salman lying motionless in his bedroom, and several outsider women were massaging oil on his hands and feet. Samira's relative Ruby was sitting in the next room.
Salman's mother screamed and requested to take him to the hospital. On the way, they saw rope marks on Salman's neck and bluish marks on his face and feet. Later, he was taken to Holy Family Hospital and then to Dhaka Medical College (DMCH) Hospital, where the attending doctor informed them that Salman Shah had died long ago.
Mohammad Alamgir further stated that before his death, Salman's father, Komor Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, suspecting his son's death was a murder, filed a petition in the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court on July 24, 1997. In it, he requested that the unnatural death case at Ramna Police Station be accepted as a murder case under sections 302/34 of the Penal Code and investigated by the CID.
After Salman's father's death, Alamgir is handling the case on behalf of his sister. If any of the accused in the case have died, they will be acquitted from the case liability subject to proof.
