Photo : Collected

DHAKA, Oct 20, 2025 (BSS) – A court here today ordered officer in-charge of the Ramna Police Station to treat the case filed over the death of Bangla movie superstar Salman Shah, as murder and submit  a report in this connection.

Dhaka 6th Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Md Jannatul Ibn Haque passed the order, allowing a revision plea of the plaintiff.

The court in its order said the unnatural death case is hereby cancelled and revoked by order passed on October 31, 2021.

“Accordingly, the complaint of unnatural death filed by the original informant Kamar Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury (victim’s father), along with a copy of his petition submitted before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Dhaka, on July 24, 1997, and the copy of the confessional statement of Rizvi alias Farhad, are hereby attached and treated together as a first information report (FIR) under sections 302/34 of the Penal Code. 

The Officer-in-Charge of Ramna Police Station is directed to record the case accordingly and submit a police report." the order said.

Film actor Chowdhury Mohammad Shahriar (Emon), popularly known as Salman Shah, died on September 6, 1996. Following the incident, his father, Kamar Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury, initially filed an unnatural death case. The following year, on July 24, 1997, Salman Shah’s father filed a petition with the court, bringing murder allegations and seeking to register the case under Section 302 of the Penal Code. 

In response, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court of Dhaka directed the CID to investigate both the unnatural death and murder cases simultaneously. After investigation, the CID submitted its final report to the court on November 3, 1997, concluding the incident as a case of ‘suicide’.

On November 25 of that year, the CMM Court of Dhaka accepted the CID’s final report. However, Kamar Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury rejected the report and filed a revision case challenging it. 

Later, on May 19, 2003, the court ordered a judicial inquiry into the case. After nearly 11 years, on August 3, 2014, Metropolitan Magistrate Imdadul Haque submitted the judicial investigation report to the court, which also termed Salman Shah’s death as ‘unnatural death’. Following Kamar Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury’s death, Salman’s mother, Nila Chowdhury, was included as complainant in the murder case.

On February 10, 2015, Nila Chowdhury filed a ‘naraji’ (no-confidence) petition with the CMM court, challenging the judicial investigation report. The case was later investigated by the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI).

On February 25, 2020, PBI Inspector Sirajul Islam submitted the final report to the court, and on October 31, 2021, the court accepted the report and disposed of the case. Subsequently, on June 12, 2022, on behalf of Salman Shah’s mother, Nila Chowdhury, film director Alamgir Kumkum filed an appeal with the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court, challenging the lower court’s order.