What began as a mother’s demand for justice -- claiming her son was shot during the July uprising -- was in fact a scripted plot driven by vendetta.
An investigation by the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) found that Shihab Uddin, then a Class-X student whose mother filed an attempted murder case against local political leaders in Sylhet’s Companiganj, was not shot at all. Instead, he was injured in a road accident elsewhere, hours after the alleged attack.
In a separate case, a living person was shown dead. While it was alleged that the 20-year-old man was killed in the capital’s Uttara area during the uprising, the PBI found that the man was alive.
These were not the only such cases. The PBI has identified at least 14 fake cases while investigating 195 Complaint Register (CR) cases filed with courts nationwide over incidents linked to the July mass uprising.
According to PBI headquarters data, the motives behind the filing of false cases ranged from previous enmity to family disputes. Of those, 10 were filed on attempted murder charges, three over attacks and physical assault, and one on murder charges.
Moreover, the agency could not find any evidence to substantiate the allegations in 10 more cases.
“We thoroughly verified the allegations multiple times but found no evidence to support them. Final reports have been submitted in those cases, and petitions have been filed with courts, seeking the discharge of the accused,” PBI Superintendent of Police (Legal and Media) Md Abu Yosuf told The Daily Star last week.
The agency has so far completed investigations into 113 out of 195 CR cases.
It found evidence in 89 cases -- nine of which involve murder charges and the rest involve offences such as attempted murder. In these cases, 6,844 individuals were named as accused, but evidence was found against 1,343 of them, the data show.
When contacted, Khondaker Rafiqul Islam, additional inspector general of police (Crime), said the victims of false cases often face harassment and suffer losses that cannot be compensated.
“Though we cannot make up for their losses, we can apply to the court under section 211 of the Penal Code to seek legal action against complainants who file false cases,” he said, adding that police are taking such steps in cases related to the July mass uprising.
Section 211 deals with the filing of false charges with the intent to cause harm to someone. It has provisions for punishment for initiating false criminal proceedings, with penalties of up to two years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both, or up to seven years’ imprisonment if the false charge involves a grave offence.
In July 2024, the demand for quota reform in public jobs soon turned into a mass uprising amid the Awami League-led government’s harsh crackdown that left hundreds dead and thousands injured.
According to a UN fact-finding report, around 1,400 people were killed during the mass uprising that culminated in the ouster of the AL regime on August 5.
Police Headquarters (PHQ) data show that 1,855 cases were filed as of April 4 this year against thousands of people, including law enforcers and AL leaders and activists. The cases are now being investigated by different police units, including the PBI.
BIKE ACCIDENT, NOT SHOOTING
Shihab’s mother Fatema Akter Parul filed an attempted murder case on November 21, 2024, against 17 individuals, including local political leaders, along with 15 to 20 unidentified people.
In the statement, she claimed that her son suffered serious bullet injuries when the accused opened fire and threw crude bombs at him in front of the Companiganj Upazila Parishad office gate on August 4, 2024.
However, what the PBI found was entirely different from her account.
According to the agency’s final report, Shihab was injured in a collision between his motorcycle and a battery-run auto-rickshaw at a different location and at a different time on the same day, as confirmed by eyewitness statements and an analysis of Call Detail Records (CDR).
Digital evidence and medical records, including documents from Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Hospital, didn’t show any firearm injuries.
Investigators, however, confirmed that Shihab had actively taken part in the mass uprising.
Subsequent findings shed light on the motive behind the case.
The PBI report said that incidents of chase and counter-chase between AL supporters and activists of the anti-discrimination students’ platform occurred on August 4 and 5, 2024. Later, Yousuf Ahmad Jony, a Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) leader, filed a case against 33 people, including Yakub Ali, an AL leader who is Parul’s uncle-in-law.
As a counter-move, Parul lodged the false case against the JCD leader and others, the report said.
When this correspondent called the phone number mentioned in the case statement, the complainant’s husband, Sharif Uddin, answered the call.
He claimed that his son is a government gazette-listed “July warrior” who was shot during the uprising.
Sharif dismissed the finding that his son’s injuries were caused by a motorcycle accident.
He further said they were yet to receive a copy of the PBI report. “We will challenge the investigation report.”
LIVING PERSON SHOWN AS DEAD
While probing a case filed over the alleged murder of a 20-year-old man in the capital’s Uttara area, the PBI found that the man was very much alive.
His mother, Parul Khatun, 45, lodged the case on November 25, 2024, with the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court against 257 people, including over a hundred local AL leaders and activists.
She alleged that her son, Md Kawsar Mia, was shot dead on July 18, 2024, during a mass procession led by students in Azampur, Uttara, and that his body was never found.
The investigation officer found that Kawsar was alive and had been arrested on June 2, 2025, in a case related to preparations for robbery.
The PBI, however, could not ascertain the motive behind the false case.
‘AN ABUSE OF LEGAL SYSTEM’
Human rights activist Nur Khan Liton described the instances of filing false cases as deeply troubling.
A vested interest group exploited the situation after August 5 to file cases targeting people whom they deemed to be obstacles to fulfilling their personal interests, he said.
“They targeted professionals and political workers who had no plausible connection to the incidents described [in the case statements]. This is an abuse of the legal system. Legal action should be taken against those who filed such cases,” added Liton, also a member of the now-defunct Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances.
