Pori Moni says she's being framed as police get two more days to interrogate her

Actress Shamsunnahar Smrity, better known by her screen name Pori Moni, has denied drugs-related charges as police have won a court order to interrogate her for two more days.

Her aide Ashraful Islam Dipu’s remand was also extended when they were brought before a magistrates court in Dhaka on Tuesday following the end of a four-day remand over a drugs case.

“I'm being framed on false charges and you are laughing!” she told onlookers while getting on the lift after leaving the courtroom. 

Metropolitan Magistrate Debabrata Biswas also granted police another six days to remand film producer Nazrul Islam Raz and his manager Sabuj Ali in cases related to narcotics and pornography.

Pori Moni wiped her tears during the hearing. Dipu was crying as well. Raz looked sad.

The actress wore the same shirt and pants she had during her arrest by the Rapid Action Battalion in a raid on her Banani flat on Aug 4.   

“She is wearing the same dress for more than 100 hours,” one of her lawyers told the court.

A policewoman guarding her and the defence lawyer then said the actress had worn a different dress in jail and changed before being escorted to the court.   

A commotion took place when police stopped journalists from entering the courtroom. They were later allowed into the room.

Pori Moni recently hogged the headlines after accusing a businessman of trying to rape and murder her at a boating club. Police subsequently arrested Nasir Uddin Mahmood, a Dhaka Boat Club member, in a case filed by the actress. He was later released on bail.

Pori Moni came into the RAB's crosshairs following the arrest of Sharful Hasan alias Mishu Hasan and his accomplice Md Masudul Islam alias Jishan in Bashundhara on Aug 3 on charges of carrying out illicit activities in the name of DJ parties.

Based on the information gleaned from Mishu and Jishan, the elite police unit launched a raid on Pori Moni's Banani residence the following day and detained her allegedly with bottles of liquor, Yaba pills and LSD blots.

RAB also arrested Raz, Sabuj Ali in a near-simultaneous raid on Raz’s house in the same area. It brought charges against Pori Moni over the possession of alcohol and illegal substances.

The police later put the CID on the cases and opened an investigation after removing Md Golam Saklain Shithil from Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch as an additional deputy commissioner for his 'unprofessional conduct' with the actress.

Speaking to the media at the court premises, her grandfather Shamsul Haque Gazi claimed that she was “a victim of circumstance”.

“Pori Moni's never done anything for herself in her life. She's charitable towards everyone. And now she's a victim of circumstance,” he said.

Shamsul was at her Banani home during RAB’s raid. “The bottles were empty. I can’t say whether those were liquor bottles or not,” he said.

A former school headmaster, Shamsul claimed Pori Moni does not own a flat in Dhaka.

‘SEND TO REHAB’

Md Mojibur Rahman, a lawyer for Pori Moni, said at the remand hearing no case documents identify her as a “drug trader”.

“If she'd done drugs and narcotics were found in her home, she should be sent to rehabilitation, not remanded, in line with the law,” he said, claiming sick people, women and children get advantages in hearings on remand petitions, and that his client was not a “thug”.

He alleged that the police and the state would not let him see the remand petition.

Public Prosecutor Abdullah Abu then said, “We had the forwarding. Why didn’t you see it at that time?”      

Mojibur also asked if it was sensible and ethical to serve purposes of the state by sending to remand a person with the stature of Pori Moni, who was named by Forbes magazine last year as one of 100 Digital Stars of Asia.

About allegations that Pori Moni threw regular parties at her home at night, the lawyer said, “The Nawabs of Dhaka kept Baijis (courtesans) who used to give people healthy entertainment, but there is no history of cases lodged against them.”    

One of the Baijis, Lolita Roy, worked in the Tollywood film “The Last Kiss” funded by people at the residence of Dhaka’s Nawab. There was liquor in many scenes, but no case was filed, according to him.