Local police believe she is not guilty, but she has been sitting in jail for nearly three and a half months following a tragic car accident that killed a young man. She has been denied bail in a bailable case, taken into remand three times, and her family are now also on the run as they have been made accused in the “murder” case against her.
It all started in the early hours of July 11, when Jannati Hossain, 23, was driving her 27-year-old friend Mostamsir Ashraf’s car from Uttara to Dhanmondi.
Right after descending from the Mohakhali flyover, the car, which reportedly suffered a brake failure, ran into the back of a police van parked on the roadside opposite the Shaheen School and College.
The left side of the car was smashed and Mostamsir, who was sitting in the passenger seat beside Jannati, got badly injured and later died in hospital. Jannati and three law enforcers, who were inside the van, were also injured in the accident.
Later that day, a police sub-inspector who witnessed the incident filed an accident case against Jannati for reckless driving and hitting the police van. There is nothing in the case statement, a copy of which the Dhaka Tribune has accessed, that suggests it was anything other than a plain and simple accident.
Since Jannati had a legal driving licence, she was eligible under existing laws for getting bail in the accident case. If proven guilty, the maximum punishment she could have got was three months’ jail.
However, she never got bail and has already been in jail for nearly three and a half months.
Eleven days after the incident, Mostamsir’s uncle filed a murder case against Jannati, her husband, and her brothers with a Dhaka court, reportedly after having failed to convince local police to accept a murder case.
The court later ordered investigators to merge the two cases against her, and since then Jannati has been denied bail and taken on remand several times.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police, who are investigating the merged cases, however are still to find any evidence that could prove Jannati guilty of murder although they have taken her on remand for a total of 15 days so far, the last of which ended October 23.
Mostamsir’s father Khan Mohammad Abdul Mannan is a former judge of a district court and is now serving the government as the inspector general of registration (IGR). Reportedly, he did not like the friendship between his son and Jannati.
The Dhaka Tribune has learned that on the day of the accident, Mostamsir’s family and several of their influential well wishers tried to put pressure on Tejgaon police to file a murder case instead of an accident case.
They even allegedly blamed the police for being involved with the so-called murder, but because police had a witness among them who testified that it was an accident, they refused to accept a murder case.
The list of witnesses in the murder case includes several high-ranking government officials such as the director general and a public prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the director general of the Islamic Foundation, a deputy secretary of the Law Ministry, and an additional district judge of Narsingdi.
The Dhaka Tribune has talked to two of these witnesses and both have said they did not know that a murder case had been filed.
Shamim Mohammad Afzal, DG of Islamic Foundation, said he did not know Jannati or her family.
“After the accident, along with others, I went to see Mostamsir because he was our colleague’s son. I do not know what had happened before or after the accident. I just saw the victim’s dead body; that is it,” he said.
Claiming that he did not know that a murder case had been filed, the government official said: “They made me a witness in the case. If the investigation officer calls me, I will talk to him.”
Another witness Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah, DG of ACC, said Mostamsir’s father was his friend.
“I went to the police station after I had learned that my friend’s son had died in a road accident. No one told me that a murder case had been filed or I was made a witness. I do not know the girl personally but I saw her at the police station.”
Mostamsir-Jannati’s friendship
Jannati’s husband Reyman Siddique told the Dhaka Tribune that his wife was a young entrepreneur. She and Mostamsir were partners in a coffee shop and restaurant named Eco Sparks Restaurant in Uttara, which was informally opened in July.
Jannati and Mostamsir invested Tk15 lakh each for the restaurant, he said.
But Mostamsir’s father Khan Mohammad Abdul Mannan wanted his only son to go abroad instead of getting involved in business with Jannati. He even called up Jannati and requested her to sever ties with his son, Reyman said.
Mostamsir, however, was determined to start the food business. He got the money to invest from his mother, according to Reyman.
“Then my wife and I started planning for opening a fashion house in Dhanmondi. The accident happened day before the shop was scheduled to open. Mostamsir wanted to invest in that business too. We were discussing the terms of investment at that time,” Reyman said.
“On the night of July 10, Jannati, her brother Junayed, Mostamsir, and I were hanging out at the Eco Sparks Restaurant in Uttara sector 12. Around 10pm, we left the place. Jannati was supposed go to a relative’s house in Dhanmondi because of the fashion house’s opening the next day. Mostamsir was also going to Dhanmondi to meet a relative, and so he offered her a lift. I went home by myself. Jannati drove Mostamsir’s car that night because his driver was on leave. On the way, they dropped Junayed at Khilkhet,” Reyman said.
“After Mostamsir died, his father, and some high profile friends visited the police station. They exerted pressure on police to take a murder case. But they did not take the case as a policeman had witnessed the accident and Jannati had a valid driving license.
“I think, as Mostamsir’s father was unhappy with his son’s business links with Jannati, he filed the murder case to teach her a good lesson,” Reyman said.
Jannati’s mother Sakeela Hossain alleged that the plaintiff and his relatives had threatened them several times saying they would “ensure” conviction for Jannati in the murder case.
Born on June 8, 1991, Jannati owns several successful businesses including vehicle modifying firm “Velocity,” car-based magazine “Torque,” and photography agency “Anarchy.”
A student of literature, psychology, and Chinese at the North South University, she scored the highest marks in her department in her seventh semester, while also scoring the highest points in A-level English literature in all of south Asia. The 23-year-old can speak six foreign languages, and has been a mentor at the Bangladesh Start-up Cup.
The accident case statement
The first case was filed by Tejgaon police’s Sub-Inspector Sarder Nizamul Haque on July 11. It stated that a police van was stationed along the pavement at Shaheenbagh. Around 1am, a black sedan car coming down from the Mohakhali flyover to Jahangir Gate hit the police van from behind.
“After getting hit, the police van ran on to the pavement. It’s right and back sides and private car’s left and front sides got smashed. A police constable and two Ansar men, who were inside the van, sustained injuries,” the case statement said.
“We found that in the smashed car, a woman was on the driving seat. On her left, a young man was lying injured and unconscious. The woman gained sense and shouted for help. With the help of other members of our team, we pulled the man out of the smashed left door,” it said.
“As we took them to the nearby Ayesha Memorial Hospital, doctors declared the man dead,” the statement read.
The girl identified herself as Jannati Hossain, a resident of the capital’s Khilkhet area and the young man as Mostamsir Ashraf, a resident of Uttara.
Police made an inquest report of the dead body and took the sedan car and the police van to the Tejgaon Police Station compound and Jannati was shown arrested. Later she was given treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
“The arrestee drove the car recklessly which led to the accident. The victim died because of the pressure that the smashed door put on his body. As one died, police members sustained injuries in the incident and our vehicle got damaged, I am filing an accident case under section 279/304-kha/427 of the penal code,” Sub-Inspector Sarder Nizamul Haque wrote in the case statement.
Autopsy findings
The post mortem report prepared by the Dhaka Medical College forensic department says, the cause of Mostamsir’s death was shock resulting from haemorrhage in vital organs such as the lungs, liver and spleen because of blunt force, compression and rupture, which happened before he died and were accidental (road traffic accident).
The murder case statement
Mostamsir’s paternal uncle Hannan Khan filed the murder case with a Dhaka court under Section 302 of the Penal Code, 11 days after the accident case had been filed.
According to the case statement, the members of Mostamsir’s family were at their village home in Dohar near Dhaka on the night of the incident. Around 2:30am, Mostamsir’s chauffeur Aziz informed them about the incident over phone. They rushed to the Tejgaon police station and were later joined by Law Ministry Secretary Abu Saleh Mohammad Jahirul Haque, ACC DG Kamrul Hossain Mollah, Islamic Foundation DG Shamim Mohammad Afzal and Additional District Judge of Narshingdi Mahbubur Rahman.
“Police showed us the van and we found that the two front wheels were punctured, the battery was not in place, the front door had no lock and there was dust on the front seat. It proves that the police car fell in accident at least two to three months back and had been there at the police station compound since then,” the statement said.
It also claimed that although the left door of Mostamsir’s car was smashed, his body did not have any severe injury mark, neither did Jannati’s body.
“We have learned that the victim was with Jannati and Jubayeer [her brother] until 11:30pm. Mostamsir wanted to go home, but they took him and his car to an unknown place.”
It further alleged that Jannati killed Mostamsir to misappropriate his businesses with the help of Reyman, her father DM Delwar Hossain and brothers Jubayer and Junayed. Later, with further help from Tejgaon police, they made up the accident story, the statement alleged.
The statement also termed Delwar and Jubayer as part of a gang of miscreants.
Sources at Tejgaon police station said before filing the murder case, the plaintiff came and threatened to make police accused in the case. When Tejgaon police said they would also file a counter case, the plaintiff decided to drop police from the case.
When contacted, Mostamsir’s father Mannan Khan told the Dhaka Tribune: “I found it unacceptable and dubious that my son died in the passenger seat, but Jannati, who was driving the car, did not have any sign of injury. I believe this requires further investigation.”
When told about the allegations raised by Jannati’s mother, Mannan Khan said: “She is out of her mind. These are all lies.”
“I believe my son was killed and I want justice,” he said.
Jannati’s lawyer
Jannati’s lawyer Mizan Mollah said she was being wrongly targeted because Mostamsir was the son of a very powerful man.
“I have been working as a lawyer for 30 years and I can say that this is plain and simple case of an accident ... Reckless driving is a bailable offence and Jannati is being denied her right for the past four months ... Police is a first-hand witness of the accident and they said in their report that it was an accident. The BRTA report also stated that the car suffered mechanical failure,” he said.
He also said filing of the murder case was not legally right because a second case could not be filed against an accused person before the hearing in the existing case was settled.
“Whenever we tried to have hearing in the accident case, we were told that investigation was still going on and Jannati was being taken into remand for further questioning,” he said.
CID’s version
“She will have to admit before court that she had intentions to kill her friend. Otherwise, it will be hard to prove a murder,” Uttam Kumar Biswas, investigation officer of the murder and an inspector of CID, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said CID had been trying to find out two things – why she drove the car and why Mostamsir was with her that late in the night.
Asked why Mostamsir’s uncle did not accuse Tejgaon police officials, he said, “Mostamsir’s family members just suspected police’s involvement. But they were not sure. We still have not found anything against the local police.”
“If Jannati was really innocent, her mother could have come to us and showed the evidence. But she did not,” Uttam said.
However, Jannati’s mother Shakeela Hossain said: “I went to the CID office with my brother-in-law two days after Jannati had been arrested. But the investigation officer kept us waiting until evening saying he was busy entertaining calls from some high officials of the Home Ministry.”
Latest developments
On October 30, yet another bail plea for Jannati was turned down by the district sessions judge’s court of Dhaka.
Her lawyer Mizan Mollah said the refusal of bail was an indication that some influential parties had been trying to control the case.
“It was a clear bailable case. The court did not give any explanation for denying the bail. It is unacceptable.”
Jannati’s mother said they would go to the High Court now. “For that purpose, we are trying to collect all the necessary papers from the sessions judge’s court. But it has not been easy for us. Even the registrar’s office does not want to give us the case papers. We are being choked from all sides.
“If that is not enough to indicate that someone has been controlling things and creating all the obstacles for us, then what is?” Jannati’s mother inquired in exasperation.