From mugging to murder to family feud: How a 30-year-old mystery was solved
Sagira Morshed Salam, a researcher at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, was shot dead in broad daylight on 25 July 1989 in the capital's Bailey Road area.
All eyes will be on a Dhaka court on 20 February when the judgement in the 1989 murder case of Sagira Morshed will be pronounced.
But this will be no simple closure. It's one that's been 35 years in the making.
Sagira Morshed Salam, a researcher at Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (Bida), was shot dead in broad daylight on 25 July 1989 in the capital's Bailey Road area.
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She was fatally shot while on her way to pick up her daughter from Viqarunnisa Noon School and College.
The assailants, riding a motorcycle, attempted to rob her of her gold bangle and shot her as she tried to escape, leading to her death en route to the hospital.
Thirty years since then, investigation agencies could not solve the murder case as a High Court (HC) order restricted further investigation into the case.
That changed on 26 June 2016, when an HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman lifted the stay order.
The HC bench also ordered the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to investigate the case further and directed the trial court to finish its proceedings.
The PBI had a herculean task on their hands. Much time had passed since the murder.
Without any forensic investigation, and without any help of modern technology, the PBI stuck to focusing on small clues left from investigations conducted almost three decades earlier.
The cobwebs were removed. The i's had to be dotted and t's had to be crossed.
Talking to The Business Standard in 2019, the-then deputy inspector general and PBI chief Banaj Kumar Majumdar said, "The High Court issued the stay order after hearing a petition filed by one of the suspects, Maruf Reza, who challenged the trial court's directive for conducting further investigation into the case in 1991. We picked up our investigation from the point where it had been left at that time.
"We tried to investigate the person who filed the petition and how he benefited from it," he added.
Back to basics
In 1990, police submitted the charge sheet to the lower court concerned against Minto alias Mantoo alias Mauron.
On 17 January 1991, a Dhaka court framed charges against him after recording statements of eight witnesses in the case.
The name of Maruf Reza, a relative of former home minister Mahmudul Hasan, came to light when the trial court was recording statements of the witnesses.
It was a name that would prove to be crucial in putting the puzzle together.
The lower court directed the police to further investigate the case on 23 May 1991.
Later, Maruf Reza filed a revision petition with the HC, challenging the lower court's order.
Following this, the HC on 2 July 1991, stayed the trial proceedings of the case and further investigation into the murder.
Inspector Rafiqul Islam, the then investigation officer of the case, also said Maruf Reza was detained by the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police at that time.
"Reza's name surfaced when the witnesses were giving statements. The Detective Branch detained him but released him later. There might have been some pressure to release him and submit a charge sheet mentioning the case as mugging," he said.
So, Maruf Reza's name was on the list of suspects from the very beginning of the PBI's investigation.
'Hey I know you! Why are you here?'
In the 2019 conversation with The Business Standard, Banaj Kumar Majumdar also said they tried to reach every person who was possibly involved in or aware of this incident.
"At first, we contacted the plaintiff and the victim's husband Abdus Salam Chowdhury. After talking to him we came to know about the first eyewitness, a rickshaw-puller named Salam Molla," Banaj said.
The PBI also came to know about some domestic altercation in the family between Sagira and her in-laws.
"After trying for a few months, we were able to find the rickshaw-puller," said the PBI chief.
Salam Molla, now 56, gave the first breakthrough in the PBI's investigation.
He told the PBI that before getting shot, Sagira identified one of the motorcycle riders, who shot her.
Salam Molla also told the PBI that addressing one of the assailants Sagira said, "Hey, I know you! Why are you here?"
This was a real breakthrough.
The PBI then began to look for the person Sagira had recognised moments before her death.
The Tk25,000 assassin-for-hire
The investigation officer also said the case had been treated as a mugging case before the PBI started the investigation.
"The rickshaw-puller told us that if it was just an incident of mugging, Sagira would not be able to identify the mugger. So, we focused on the family crisis and altercations between the three sisters-in-law," Inspector Rafiqul added.
"We also tried to know the details of the family crisis and got some important clues there," he said.
"Then we interrogated the suspects – Sagira's brother-in-law Dr Hasan Ali Chowdhury, his wife Sayedatul Mahmuda Chowdhury, her brother Anas Mahmud Rezwan, and Maruf Reza, one of the patients of Dr Hasan.
"At last, while we were interrogating the suspects one by one, we came to know that family altercations led to the murder. The doctor couple hired Maruf Reza in exchange for Tk25,000, and Anas Mahmud Rezwan also took part in the killing," Banaj Kumar Majumdar said.
The PBI chief also said they tried to collect information on the revolver and the motorcycle used in the killing. But they could not find any trace of those.
"Maruf Reza confessed before the court that he had collected the revolver from Harhar Munna, a criminal from the capital's Jatrabari area. We also tried to reach him, but unfortunately we came to know that he died during a gunfight two years ago," he added.
The PBI found no connection of Minto, who was mentioned in the charge sheet submitted by police in 1990, with the murder of Sagira.
The aftermath
The accused, who are waiting for their fate now, are the same old faces.
The individuals accused in this case are Dr Hasan Ali Chowdhury, 71, Sagira's brother-in-law; his wife Sayedatul Mahmuda alias Shahin, 65; Mahmud Rezwan, 60; Maruf Reza, 60; and Mantu Mandal alias Mintu.
Among them, Mahmud and Maruf are currently incarcerated, while the others have been released on bail.
The murder case was initially filed by Sagira's husband, Salam Chowdhury, with the Ramna Police Station.
