Shirin Sharmin falls on the stairs in court

After being missing for over a year and a half since the July mass uprising, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury was finally arrested and detained in prison.

The police requested custody of the former Speaker for questioning in connection with an attempted murder case related to the July mass uprising, but the court did not grant this request. Similarly, her bail application was rejected by the judge.

Following a 20-minute hearing at the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Shirin Sharmin was ordered to be sent to prison. After the order, there was a clash between lawyers supporting the Awami League whose activities are now currently banned, and those supporting the BNP in the court premises as slogans were chanted.

Sixty-year-old Shirin Sharmin was elected the first female Speaker of the Bangladeshi Parliament in 2013 on an Awami League nomination. She held the position continuously until the July uprising in 2024.

After the Awami League was ousted from power during the July mass uprising, Shirin Sharmin and her family took shelter in Dhaka Cantonment.

Although many party leaders, ministers, and MPs were arrested afterwards, Shirin Sharmin's whereabouts remained unknown.

On 2 September 2024, 27 days after the fall of the government and the dissolution of Parliament, news emerged of her resignation from the Speaker position. However, nothing was known about her whereabouts during the interim government.

Today, Tuesday before dawn, the Detective Branch (DB) reported that Shirin Sharmin was unexpectedly arrested from a house in Dhaka's Dhanmondi. She was first taken to the DB office on Mintoo Road in the capital.

She was shown as arrested in a case filed at the capital's Lalbagh police station during the July mass uprising for violence, vandalism, and attempted murder.

In the afternoon, she was taken to the Old Dhaka court in a microbus. Several male and female police officers surrounded Shirin Sharmin, who was wearing a blue sari.

At 1:55 PM, she was taken to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in Dhaka. She appeared in court at 3:15 PM for a remand hearing. The courtroom was full of lawyers and journalists at this time.

The hearing in support of the two-day remand application filed by the Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Police was conducted by the state counsel, Metropolitan Public Prosecutor (PP) Omar Faruk Faruki.

Omar Faruk Faruki stated that the accused was an ''associate of fascists''. She was a Member of Parliament elected without a vote. She allegedly directed the firing on protesters to keep the ''fascist government'' in power. Her involvement in the case was found. For a proper investigation, it is necessary to interrogate her in remand for two days.

On the other hand, several defence lawyers, including Barristers Mamun and Shamim Al Saiful Sohag, applied to dismiss the remand application and grant bail to Shirin Sharmin.

Defence lawyers argued, "The case involves 130 named and several unknown defendants. Apart from Shirin Sharmin's name, there is no other involvement mentioned in the FIR. If there is anything other than her name at Number 3 in the FIR, we will not seek bail."

Lawyers further argued the date of the incident is 18 July 2024, but the case was filed on 25 May 2025, i.e., 10 months and 7 days later.

Expressing sympathy for the injured, defence lawyers argued that Shirin Sharmin did not fire the shot.

Defense lawyers also said at the time of the incident, Shirin Sharmin was the Speaker of the National Parliament. She is constitutionally a neutral figure. There is no allegation of wrongdoing against her. Later, she herself resigned. She is the only person who has directly submitted a resignation letter.

Highlighting Shirin Sharmin's membership in the Dhaka Lawyers' Association as a lawyer by profession, the defence requested her release on bail as a woman.

After the hearing, the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Jewel Rana rejected both the remand and bail applications and ordered Shirin Sharmin to be sent to prison.

At 3:20 PM, the police returned Shirin Sharmin to the court's prison guardroom.

As Shirin Sharmin was being taken to the guardroom, tension arose when a group of Awami League-supporting lawyers started chanting slogans.

They clashed with BNP-supporting lawyers.

At this point, while descending the stairs from the court, Shirin Sharmin lost her balance in the crowd on the ground floor stairs. The police on duty immediately helped her up.

However, Sub-Inspector Md Morshed Alam in charge of the Dhaka CMM court's guardroom told reporters, "She didn''t fall. Her foot twisted slightly at the last step. Our female police officers were holding her from all sides. She didn't fall."

Although there are several other cases, Shirin Sharmin was shown arrested in the case of attempted murder of Md Ashraful Fahim during the July movement.

The FIR of this case states that on 18 July 2024, during the movement for quota reform in the Azimpur government colony area of Lalbagh, Dhaka, police and unknown terrorists from the Awami League fired into a student and public rally. Ashraful Fahim was hit by bullets in his left eye, head, and various parts of his body.

On 17 July 2025, Ashraful Fahim filed a case at Lalbagh police station. He alleged that under the directives of Awami League president and then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and plans and directions of Biplob Barua, Obaidul Quader, and Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, police and unidentified individuals used firearms, local and foreign, to fire upon unarmed participating students and the public in the movement.

Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury was listed as the third accused in the list of accused. The FIR further stated that approximately 31 activists were killed during the ''Complete Shutdown'' programme on 18 July. Other accused, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as the first accused and Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury as the third accused, were involved in taking important state decisions. It is reported that the incident occurred under their planning and direct or indirect instructions.

The remand application, filed by DB Police Inspector Mohsin Uddin, stated that to ascertain the location of fugitive accused, arrest them, and collect necessary evidence, the accused needed to be taken into custody for two days of remand.

After the arrest, the DB informed the court of information obtained from Shirin Sharmin during the initial interrogation. The remand application mentions that during interrogation, the accused disclosed her name and address and admitted her involvement in the incident of the case.

However, she strategically avoided answering questions regarding the case events and fugitive accused.

The DB stated that bringing the accused into police custody for intensive and extensive interrogation could likely yield necessary information for determining the whereabouts of fugitive accused, making arrests, and uncovering the mystery of the case. It was also stated that if the accused were to be released on bail, there is a possibility of her permanently absconding and disrupting the investigation of the case.

In the early hours, Detective Police reported that Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury was detained from a relative's house.

Later, DB Additional Commissioner Shafiqul Islam told Prothom Alo that information on six cases, including murder cases during the mass uprising, was found against Shirin Sharmin.

Among these, final reports have already been submitted in three cases. The remaining three cases are currently under investigation, according to the police officer.