Assault Case Against Erfan Salim: Court summons complainant for opinion on probe

A Dhaka court yesterday summoned the complainant of the case filed against lawmaker Haji Mohammad Salim's son Mohammad Erfan Salim and four others over the assault of a Navy officer in October last year.

Dhaka's Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Md Hasibul Haque summoned Lt Wasif Ahmed Khan to appear before it on April 28, for his opinion over the probe report submitted by detectives.

If the complainant does not agree with the probe report, the court will then decide whether to accept it or order further investigation into the case, court sources said.

Earlier on February 11, Sub-Inspector Mominul Haque of Detective Branch of police and the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge-sheet to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court of Dhaka.

The other accused are: Erfan's bodyguard Zahidul Mollah, chauffeur Mizanur Rahman,  protocol officer of Madina Group AB Siddique Dipu and Kazi Ripon, a close associate of Erfan.

Of them, Erfan and three others are now in jail while Ripon was shown fugitive in the charge sheet. The IO appealed to the court to issue arrest warrant against Ripon.

According to the case filed by navy officer Wasif, an SUV with the plate "Dhaka Metro-Gha 11-5736" rear-ended his motorcycle in the capital's Dhanmondi when he and his wife were returning to their Dhaka Cantonment home from Nilkhet around 7:45pm on October 25.

A man then stepped out of the SUV and verbally abused them and left the spot. When the vehicle stopped at a traffic light, officer Wasif knocked on its window and introduced himself. At that, the occupants of the vehicle stepped out and started hurling abuse and assaulting him, the complaint said.

When his wife tried to save him, they also assaulted her too and left the scene, abandoning the vehicle.

Video clips of the incident caught by several bystanders went viral on social media. In one of the clips, an injured Wasif is seen describing the incident to bystanders.

Erfan and his bodyguard Zahidul were sentenced to one year in prison the next day for illegally possessing walkie-talkies and foreign liquor, after Rab officials led by an executive magistrate raided Haji Salim's building Chan Sarder Dada Bari on Debidas Ghat Lane in the capital's Chawkbazar area.

But Erfan was granted ad-interim bail later in the cases in which he was sentenced.

On January 5 this year, Chawkbazar police submitted the final reports in the arms and drugs cases to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka. The final report said police did not find evidence supporting the allegations against Erfan in the two cases.

However, Erfan's bodyguard Md Zahidul Mollah was charged with possession of an illegal firearm and narcotics.

Meanwhile, two separate courts discharged Erfan from the cases filed for possessing firearms and narcotics.

The High Court on March 18 granted Erfan Salim bail in the assault case filed by the navy officer.