Court rejects actor Don’s bail in Salman Shah murder case

A Dhaka court on Monday rejected the bail petition of film actor Ashraful Haque Don in a case filed over the death of film star Salman Shah.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Manjurul Islam passed the order, said Additional Public Prosecutor Muhammad Shamsuddoha Sumon.

Earlier, Don’s lawyer submitted a bail petition, arguing that the actor was innocent and had been implicated in the case to harass him.

The petition cited seven grounds for bail. Among them, the lawyer argued that two inquest reports, two autopsy reports, and the viscera and chemical examination reports indicated that Salman Shah had died by suicide.

The petition also claimed that Don had no knowledge of the incident and had been unnecessarily implicated in the case.

It said Don was arrested on August 9 and had remained in custody since then, making him eligible for bail under the law.

Immigration police arrested Don at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on August 9 and later handed him over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). He was sent to jail the same day. A court rejected his earlier bail petition on August 12.

On October 20 last year, Salman Shah’s maternal uncle, Mohammad Alomgir Kumkum, filed the murder case with Ramna Model Police Station.

The other accused include Salman Shah’s former wife Samira Haque; her mother, Latifa Haque Luchi; businessman Aziz Mohammad Bhai; Debit, Javed and Faruk; and Ruby, Abdul Sattar, Saju and Rezvi Ahmed alias Farhad.

On October 20, a court also ordered the officer-in-charge of Ramna Police Station to register the previously filed unnatural death case over Salman Shah’s death as a murder case.