Actor Shaon sues 2 for stealing Humayun Ahmed’s painting
The court has directed the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to submit a probe report
Humayun Ahmed's wife and actor Meher Afroz Shaon has filed a lawsuit in Dhaka Additional Chief Metropoliton Magistrate, Tofazzal Hossain's court today accusing two of stealing some paintings of the late acclaimed writer.
The two accused in the case are Ruma Chowdhury and Manzurul Azim Palash.
Talking to The Business Standard, Shaon confirmed that she filed the case this morning and the court has directed the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to submit a probe report.
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According to the case statement, the late writer drew some portraits along with his younger son Nishad Humayun back in 2012 when he was undergoing cancer treatment in New York. He handed over 24 of those paintings to accused number one, Ruma Chowdhury, and her ex-husband Bishwajit Shaha in June 2012 on the condition that those be returned to him unscathed.
At time, the couple tried to coax Humayun into selling the paintings, with the duo getting a commission of the sales. However, Humayun turned down the offer.
After several conversations following the writer's death, they returned twenty of the paintings to his mother Ayesha Foyez in February 2013.
Years after the incident, the issue gained momentum after one of the stolen paintings resurfaced in Cumilla. The second accused, Palash, posted a Facebook link to an art exhibition on 31 March claiming it to include an original art piece of Humayun Ahmed.
The 10-day exhibition titled "Selected paintings of hundred artists from Bangladesh and India" was organised by Link Bangla, a venture of Palash.
The plaintiff, widow of Humayun, alleged that event organisers did not obtain the painting legally and it was part of the four paintings that were not returned to Humayun's family back in 2013.
The painting in question is a watercolour painting of youth standing underneath a tree.
Ruma is currently living in Cumilla with her newly-married husband Monzurul Azim Palash -- who hosted the art exhibition -- after divorcing her former husband Bishwajit Saha, an organiser of book fair and purveyor of Bangla books in North America.
Bishwajit used to be an associate of Humayun, who passed away at a hospital in New York on July 19, 2012.
