An “attempted murder” case in Bangladesh naming ousted PM Sheikh Hasina and 112 others has collapsed after investigators failed to trace the alleged victim or verify any core claims in the complaint. Even as the police are now seeking to drop the charges, they said they were under “pressure” to continue with the case. This substantiates what Hasina’s Awami League said were “ghost cases” and the political pressure on law enforcement officers in the Yunus regime.
An attempted murder case filed during the 2024 Bangladesh protests against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 112 others has unravelled after investigators failed to locate the alleged victim or substantiate the details that were provided as part of the complaint. Though the police want to drop the charges, they are under political pressure not to do so.
The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), which took over the probe from local police, has told a Dhaka court that the case was riddled with “factual inaccuracies”, ranging from a missing victim to fake identity documents to a complainant who could not be traced at his own stated address. Yet, even as the PBI recommended dropping charges, it acknowledged that it was facing “pressure” over its findings, which would clear the names of Sheikh Hasina and 112 others, including Awami League leaders Sajeeb Wazed Joy (Hasina’s son) and Obaidul Quader, from the case of the “attempted murder”, reported Bangladeshi media outlet, BDNews24.
The episode sheds light on the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration, which came to power promising justice and institutional reform after the 2024 protests. While the PBI’s stance signals that it is resisting the politically convenient prosecutions, its claim of “pressure” suggests a broader retributive political climate where law enforcement is expected to deliver cases against the Awami League regime, even when evidence does not hold.
After the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s regime and Muhammad Yunus taking over, scores of Awami League leaders were booked in what many, including the Hasina-led party, see as arbitrary and politically motivated cases under an Islamist-backed Yunus administration.
The arbitrary nature of such bookings of Awami League members came into focus recently after renowned musician Proloy Chaki, who was linked to the party, died in a hospital while in police custody on Sunday. His son, Sony Chaki, said his father was arrested despite not being named in any case at the time. “He was later shown arrested in an explosives case related to the August 4 violence,” Sony Chaki was quoted as saying by Bangladeshi daily The Daily Star.
‘ATTEMPTED MURDER’ CASE AGAINST HASINA IN BANGLADESH WHOSE VICTIM COULD NOT BE FOUND
The case that has unravelled was filed at Dhaka’s Dhanmondi Police Station on September 3, 2024, by a man identifying himself as Md Sharif, a resident of the city’s Hazaribagh Tannery area.
He alleged that his younger brother, Shahed Ali, 27, had been injured in an “attempted murder” during the protests on August 4, near Meena Bazar at Dhanmondi 27. The FIR, as was the pattern in most such cases after Yunus’s takeover, predictably named 113 accused, including Sheikh Hasina.
Nine other people, described as students of Dhaka College and City College, were also listed as injured. However, just the names of those nine were provided, without addresses or medical records, reported Dhaka-based news outlet, JagoNews24.
Local police initially arrested four suspects. The investigation was later handed over to the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI).
The PBI is a specialised investigation agency of Bangladesh. It handles complex, sensitive and high-profile cases, often taking over probes from local police when greater expertise or neutrality is required. The PBI reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs and functions as a national-level investigative body in Bangladesh.
BANGLADESH AGENCY JUNKS CASE AGAINST HASINA SAYING IT WAS ‘FUNDAMENTALLY UNRELIABLE’
In a statement issued on Tuesday, after months of media and social media scrutiny, the PBI said it had submitted a final report to court on November 5, citing “factual errors” in the case. However, details only emerged after the PBI’s remarks were revealed recently.
The most damaging finding was that the alleged victim could not be found.
Investigators discovered that “no person named Shahed Ali had ever lived at the address mentioned in the FIR” and that he was not, in fact, the complainant’s brother. Verification showed the National ID number cited in the case was fake and not linked to any registered mobile number, according to BDNews24.
The FIR also claimed Shahed ran a business at Shimanto Square. But the PBI, after enquiring with the market committee and carrying out on-site checks, found “no such person”. College authorities, meanwhile, could not verify the identities of the other nine alleged victims due to the absence of full details.
Despite repeated notices, the complainant failed to produce any victim or provide complete and accurate details, the PBI said, adding that evidence from the alleged crime scene showed that “no such incident had occurred at the stated time and place”, noted the BDNews24 report.
On this basis, the agency concluded that the case was “fundamentally unreliable”. If the case itself was “fundamentally unreliable”, it inevitably raises the question of what basis, if any, existed for booking and arresting people in it in the first place.
Since her ouster in August 2024, Sheikh Hasina has been named in over 225 legal cases in Bangladesh, including more than 130 murder charges and several allegations of crimes against humanity.
On November 17, 2025, she received her first major conviction when the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced her to death for her role in the violent crackdown on student protesters. Then in November 2025, she was convicted in three corruption cases related to land allocation irregularities, resulting in a 21-year prison sentence.
COMPLAINANT VANISHED, FAILED TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE; INVESTIGATORS EXPOSE FAKE IDENTITY, ADDRESS
According to court and investigation sources cited by JagoNews24, even the complainant proved elusive.
At the Hazaribagh address he had provided, the landlord said no one by that name lived there. Verification of his National ID revealed his real name to be Shariful Islam, son of Sirajul Islam, from Mandari in Lakshmipur Sadar, where locals also failed to recognise him.
The mobile number given in the FIR was mostly unreachable, though his WhatsApp account occasionally appeared active.
When investigators finally contacted him and met near Dhanmondi Lake, he was asked to produce the alleged victim and medical documents. He failed to do either. No medical papers were submitted with the FIR.
BANGLADESH’S PBI ‘FACING PRESSURE’ ON HASINA CASE. WHY IT MATTERS
Even as it recommended clearing Hasina and 112 others in the case, the PBI admitted it was “facing pressure” over the report. The agency insisted it is investigating all anti-Hasina protest-related cases “with sincerity”.
It said evidence had been found in 17 general register cases, leading to charge sheets, and that reports had been filed in 67 complaint register cases where incidents were proven.
Given these circumstances, and in the absence of any credible evidence or testimony to back the allegations, the investigation officer recommended that Sheikh Hasina and the remaining 112 accused be acquitted in the final report submitted to the court.
The next hearing in the collapsed attempted murder case is scheduled for February 3.
The case essentially substantiates what the Awami League has repeatedly alleged and accused Muhammad Yunus-led interim government of. The Hasina-led party described these indiscriminate cases against its members as the weaponisation of the legal system through false lawsuits, “ghost cases”, and mass arrests targeting their activists.
The Awami League has said that under the Yunus regime a broader pattern of political persecution emerged, with at least 2,264 cases filed across Bangladesh in the three months leading up to October 2025. These cases led to over 32,000 political arrests, including former ministers, MPs and senior bureaucrats, the party said.
Although the case has seemingly collapsed, the case matters because it exposes how criminal law was weaponised by the Yunus administration after the regime change. It also exposes the pressure placed on investigators and agencies to deliver politically useful outcomes. It also shows how, with great ease with the police registered the case with serious charges without background checks of the victims and the complainant.
