The teenage daughter says her father called from jail and apologised for his ‘mistake’
Published : 26 Jan 2023, 07:45 PM
Ojiha Alim Rid, the teenaged daughter of actor Raima Islam Shimu, has testified in the case over the murder of her mother against her father Shakawat Ali Nobel and his friend SMY Abdullah Farhad.
Shakawat often assaulted Shimu as the couple had marital discord, Ojiha said in Dhaka Fourth Additional District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Shafiqul’s court on Thursday.
The 40-year-old actor, who lived with her husband and two children in Dhaka’s Green Road, did not return home after going out on Jan 16, 2022 and Nobel filed a general diary with Kalabagan police the following day.
Police found the body hidden in a sack on the side of a road near Aliapur in the Hazratpur Bridge area of Keraniganj that day. Police arrested Nobel and his childhood friend Farhad that night.
The investigation officer, Shahidul Islam, an inspector from Keraniganj police, submitted charges to the court in August.
Police said Shimu and Nobel were experiencing “marital strife” over a range of family issues, leading Nobel to kill her and hide the body with Farhad’s help.
Ojiha said she was sleeping in another room of their home on the day of the incident and later learnt that her mother “went missing”.
“My father didn’t have a good relationship with my mother. He often beat my mother.”
“Two days after the incident, he called me from the jail and said he had made a mistake. He asked for my forgiveness.”
Additional Public Prosecutor Anwar Sarder said the judge set Feb 9 to resume the hearing.
Shimu made her film debut in Kazi Hayat’s film ‘Bartaman’ in 1998. She starred in 25 films with noted directors, including Delwar Jahan Jhantu, Chashi Nazrul Islam, and Sharifuddin Khan Dipu. An associate member of the Bangladesh Film Artistes Association, Shimu also worked on TV drama projects.