Staff Reporter :
About 24 years ago, popular film Actor Sohail Chowdhury was killed in the capital’s Banani area on December 18, 1998. The 8th accused in the murder case was Ashish Roy Chowdhury alias Botal Chowdhury, the owner of Trump Club.
He remained fugitive for long. The court issued an arrest warrant against him on February 27. A RAB team arrested Ashish Roy from a rented house in the capital’s Gulshan area on Tuesday night (April 5) based on intelligence information.
According to the RAB, the accused Ashish Roy said in the preliminary interrogation that Sohail Chowdhury was killed due to a quarrel with Aziz Mohammad Bhai. He wanted to flee to Canada after an arrest warrant was issued.
This information was given by
Commander Khandaker Al Moin, Director, Legal and Media Wing in a press conference at RAB Media Center, Karwan Bazar, Dhaka on Wednesday (April 6).
He said that the film actor Sohail Chowdhury was shot dead in the Trump Club arena in Banani on December 18, 1998 at around 3 pm.
It is learnt that Anti-social activities swept the Trump Club from evening till night. Sohail Chowdhury repeatedly tried to stop the indecent program of the Club with the committee of Banani Mosque but failed.
Over the issue, Sohail Chowdhury got into an argument with Aziz Mohammad Bhai. Aziz Mohammad Bhai, Ashish Chowdhury and Bunty Islam planned to give him ‘proper lesson ‘. The task was given to the top terrorist Emon. Emon and his men shot and killed Sohail.
Later, his elder brother Touhidul Islam Chowdhury filed a case with Gulshan Police Station. Case number was 59. On July 30, 1999, the DB police filed a chargesheet against the nine accused. The case was framed on November 30, 2001.
The case was later referred to a speedy trial tribunal. Adnan Siddiqui, the No. 1 accused in the case, filed a writ petition in the High Court two years later, challenging the legality of sending the case to a speedy trial tribunal.
Following the writ petition, the High Court on February 17, 2004 adjourned the proceedings and issued an order with rules. Later, on August 5, 2015, another bench of the High Court dismissed the earlier ruling and revoked the stay order. The case has been ongoing since then.
Four accused in the case Faroque, Liton, Emon and Tareq Sayeed are in jail.
On February 27, the court issued an arrest warrant against the six fugitive accused. A month later, the RAB collected a copy of the warrant. Ashish Roy Chowdhury alias Botal Chowdhury (63), a fugitive accused from Gulshan in the capital, was arrested in a joint operation by the intelligence branch of RAB headquarters and RAB-10 last night.
