Retired major general arrested over attack that wrecked Salman Muqtadir’s studio

The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Wednesday arrested retired Major General Golam Mohiuddin Chowdhury in connection with the attack on New Gini Properties at ECB Chattar that also left content creator Salman Muqtadir’s BrownFish Studio wrecked.

A DB source told Daily Waadaa that a team from its Gulshan Division arrested the 66-year-old retired army officer at around 2:45 p.m. from a house in Segunbagicha under Ramna Police Station.

Mohiuddin is the fourth named accused in a case filed with Cantonment Police Station on September 27 over the attack. The case includes charges of unlawful assembly, rioting, trespass, assault, attempted murder, theft and property damage under multiple sections of the Penal Code, according to the DB source.

His arrest adds another turn to an incident that initially drew attention as an attack on one of Bangladesh’s best-known content creators, but which police later said stemmed from a dispute over the land on which his studio was located.

The attack took place late Saturday, September 26, at the New Gini Properties housing project near ECB Chattar. Salman’s BrownFish Studio operated from rented premises inside the project.

Police have said the studio itself was not the primary target.

Cantonment Police Station Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Gias Uddin earlier said a dispute between New Gini Properties and Mohiuddin over the land was behind the attack. People associated with Mohiuddin allegedly went to the property during the night, according to the police account.

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed also said preliminary findings pointed to a dispute over roughly 35 kathas of land. He said one side involved New Gini Properties, while the other was linked to a senior retired military officer.

Police said one side went to the property late at night seeking to take possession of it. BrownFish Studio was vandalised during the wider attack on the premises.

New Gini Properties Chairman Nazim Uddin Bhuiyan has separately alleged that the assault was an organised attempt to seize the property. He claimed assets worth around 50 crore taka were looted from the housing project. That figure has not been independently verified.

Salman initially described the episode in stark terms, posting videos of smashed furniture and equipment inside BrownFish and criticising the country’s law-and-order situation. He later clarified that nobody had personally demanded extortion money from him.

The case has now taken an apparently separate financial turn.

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, or BFIU, on Wednesday sought Salman Mohammad Muqtadir’s bank-account and transaction records from banks and financial institutions.

The requested documents include account-opening forms, know-your-customer information and account statements.

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