Actor Shohel Chowdhury murder: Prime suspect arrested after 24 years

Twenty four years after the murder of film actor Sohel Chowdhury, a fugitive suspect was arrested by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on Tuesday night, according to media reeports. 

ANM Emran Khan, assistant director of Rab's Legal and Media wing, said that they nabbed Ashish Roy Chowdhury from a house near Pink City Shopping Mall in Dhaka's Gulshan area. 

Earlier, the officials picked up two females from the house Ashish rented recently.

During the raid, 23 bottles of foreign liquor were  seized from the house. The No. 1 accused in the charge sheet filed over the murder case, Ashish had gone into in hiding since an arrest warrant was issued against some of the murder suspects recently.

Before that, he used to stay in his house in Mirpur DOHS, the Rab official said. Ashish Roy has been currently working at a reputed organization and has earlier worked at several of them since 2006, Rab said. 

Ashish told Rab that he was not arrested anytime in the case beforehand. Ashish said he once got bail in the case but Rab officials are not sure whether the bail was cancelled or not.  Ashish in primary interrogation revealed that in last 24 years, he had travelled abroad and also obtained a citizenship of another country.

The elite force will verify the claims, Khan said, adding that Ashish alias Botol Chowdhury is one of the nine accused in the charge sheet filed over the case.

On December 18, 1998, Sohel Chowdhury was shot dead by some miscreants at Trumps Club in Abedin Tower in Dhaka's Banani area. Following the incident, the victim's brother filed a murder case at Gulshan Police Station.

After investigation, detectives pressed charges against businessman Aziz Muhammad Bhai, Ashish along with seven others on July 30, 1999. On October 30, 2001, Dhaka's Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court framed charges against them.

After two years of framing charges against the suspects, the case was transferred to Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-2 for quick disposal. Following a petition of a murder suspect in the case, the High Court in 2003 stayed the proceedings of the trial.

On February 27, 2022, the stay on the trial proceedings was withdrawn after 19 years.