In a striking revelation underscoring the systemic misuse of the judicial process under Bangladesh’s interim government, police investigators have recommended the withdrawal of a fabricated murder case against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 41 others, filed during the chaotic July-August 2024 quota reform protests.
The case, lodged at Jatrabari police station in Dhaka, falsely claimed the death of a transport helper named Dulal alias Selim on August 3, 2024, allegedly killed by gunfire amid the anti-discrimination student movement. Investigations by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch (DB) Wari Zone have since confirmed that the purported victim, whose real name is Solayman Selim, is alive and well, exposing the complaint as a deliberate ploy rooted in familial land disputes rather than protest-related violence.
The complainant, Mustafa Kamal alias Most Dacoit—Selim’s own brother and a fugitive wanted in multiple murder and dacoity cases in Mymensingh’s Fulbaria upazila, allegedly orchestrated the hoax to implicate Hasina, Awami League leaders, and activists in a bid to settle personal scores.
According to the final investigation report submitted to the court on November 30, 2025, by DB Sub-Inspector Inamul Islam, Kamal exploited the unrest to fabricate the killing, intending to later murder Selim, dispose of his body, and seize family property.
The report explicitly states that Kamal filed the false case “in exchange for money from the named accused” to frame them, while advancing his “unscrupulous economic gains.”
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Selim, 50, the youngest of four brothers and two sisters, told BDNews24dotcom that his siblings, including Kamal, 55, Helal Uddin, 62, and Mohammad Abul Hossain Alam, 58, have been plotting to dispossess him of land through intimidation.
“I have no son; they want to kill me and take my land. That’s why they filed this saying I was murdered—to make it easier later,” Selim said from his shop in Mymensingh’s Beltole Bazar, where he lives in fear with his wife and two daughters, having abandoned his home due to threats. “They’re not just after me; they threaten to kill my daughters too, so they can grab everything.”
The case initially named 41 accused, including Hasina, Awami League General Secretary and former Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader, former ministers Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and Ramesh Chandra Sen, former MPs Shamim Osman and Mashiur Rahman Mollah Sajol, Shamim Osman’s son Ayn Osman, Chhatra League President Saddam Hossain and General Secretary Sheikh Wali Asif Inan, and Dhaka South Metropolitan Chhatra League leaders Rajibul Islam Bappy and Sajol Kundu—all currently absconding. Police later added one more suspect, bringing the total to 42, with two shown as arrested: Mohammad Ullah Patowari and Miraj Khan.
The final report recommends discharge for all, including the arrested pair, citing a complete absence of evidence tying them to any crime. Miraj Khan’s lawyer, Rashedul Islam Rashed, decried the ordeal: “My client isn’t even political, yet he was dragged in. First arrested in a Lalbagh case, then shown in others, including this one. No murder happened, but he suffered harassment. He should sue the state for compensation.”
DB Joint Commissioner (Warir Zone) Mallik Ahsan Uddin confirmed the deliberate falsehood, noting that court permission under Section 211 of the Penal Code has been sought to prosecute Kamal for filing a false case. “If the court approves, we’ll proceed; otherwise, they’ll handle it. We’ll follow their directive,” he told BDNews24.com.
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The next hearing is set for December 21, when the prosecution wing, led by Sub-Inspector Mahin Uddin, will present the report. Kamal’s provided mobile number is now disconnected, and he remains at large, evading a decade-old search warrant.
This withdrawal recommendation arrives amid a torrent of similar exposures, highlighting a pattern of “fake murder cases” weaponised for vengeance against Awami League figures following Hasina’s ouster on August 5, 2024.
On December 3, 2025, Bangladesh Police announced charge sheets in 106 cases from July 15 to August 15, 2024, of unrest—31 murders and 75 others involving vandalism, arson, and assault—spanning districts like Pabna, Sirajganj, Bogura, Dhaka, Narayanganj, Cumilla, Chandpur, Feni, Kurigram, and Sherpur, plus investigations by the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), Rajshahi, Chittagong, and Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Senior officials stressed oversight by high-ranking officers to ensure thoroughness, committing to justice for the UN-estimated 1,400 deaths, including over 12-13% children and unarmed students killed by state forces, alongside 44 slain police officers.
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Yet, controversy rages over discharges sought in 437 cases for 2,830 individuals under Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, fueled by public outrage against “case trading” and a “bail business” extorting money from the wrongly accused. Critics, including Awami League holdouts, decry the Jamaat-e-Islami-influenced interim regime’s dual-track trials—criminal courts for some, the International Crimes Tribunal-Bangladesh (ICT-BD) for others—as selective justice.
The government’s gazette lists 834 “July martyrs” killed by state or Awami League forces from July 1 to August 5, 2024, eligible for stipends, jobs, and medical aid under the July Uprising Martyr Families and July Warriors Welfare and Rehabilitation Ordinance, 2025. Media probes and fact-checkers have identified at least 50 unrelated deaths—suicides, accidents, illnesses—plus 1,500 “fake injured” claims, turning the list into a fraud magnet. The Ministry of Liberation War Affairs pledged in September to purge fakes and prosecute culprits, but Awami League sources link this scandal to thousands of retaliatory cases against their ranks.
Post-uprising violence shifted to revenge, with Human Rights Watch documenting 25 police killings on August 5 alone, plus assaults, lynchings, and arsons targeting Awami League offices, minorities, and Hindus—often tied to BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and National Citizen Party (NCP) elements.
Internal BNP clashes injured over 1,400 and killed dozens by mid-2025, per the International Crisis Group, which notes declining but election-tied flare-ups. The Awami League tallies 528 leader-activist deaths from July 2024 to October 10, 2025, and 35 custodial fatalities, including the Mahila League’s Monowara Majlis, from medical negligence. An August “amnesty order” shields uprising participants from prosecution for July 15-August 8 crimes—murders, rapes, lootings, arsons—creating asymmetry, with over 11,700 arrests and no withdrawals announced for dubious cases.
Amnesty International’s South Asia director called for prosecuting “all killers—state agents and vigilantes alike—without favouritism,” as disinformation and harassment persist. The Awami League, challenging UN martyr figures, demands the full list and decries the asymmetry ahead of the February 2026 polls. This latest fake case withdrawal, if approved, could embolden calls for broader exonerations, but it risks inflaming divisions in a nation still reckoning with the uprising’s tinderbox legacy.
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