Ovi was at Tinni’s house on the night of her murder

Model Tinni

Former additional superintendent of police and the investigation officer of murder of model Syeda Tania Mahbub Tinni, Md. Mozammel Haque, told the court that there were no eyewitnesses to the murder. This information is mentioned in the verdict acquitting former MP Golam Faruq Ovi, the accused in the murder case.

The verdict also mentions that the witness Sanjidul Hasan Emon, on whose deposition the investigation officer filed the charge sheet against Golam Faruq Ovi, told the court in the hearing that he knew nothing about the murder of Tinni. He had not spoken to Ovi, nor had he met him.

According to the verdict, no witness said that Tinni pressured Ovi to marry her or that if she did not marry him, she would reveal the illicit relationship to the media. Rather, the statements of the witnesses proved that Ovi was at her house on the date when Tinni's incident happened.

In the verdict, the court said that in order to punish the accused in the criminal justice system, the charges brought must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. There is no chance of considering an accused guilty just because he is absconding.

Model Syeda Tania Mahbub Tinni went missing on the evening of 10 November in 2002. Her body was found under the Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge-1 located on the Buriganga river that night. However, her identity was not revealed at that time. She was buried in the Jurain graveyard as an unidentified woman.

Then, on 15 November, when the woman's photo was published in a newspaper, Tinni's uncle recognised her. Later, the body was exhumed, Tinni was identified and an autopsy was performed.

Keraniganj police station filed a case against an unidentified accused in this incident. After the investigation, the police filed a charge sheet against former MP Golam Faruk Ovi on 8 November in 2008.

On 14 January, Dhaka's second additional district and sessions judge Shahinur Akhter acquitted the accused former MP Golam Faruk Ovi in the verdict of this case.

‘Ovi had affair with Tinni’

The court in its verdict says that the deposition of witnesses prove that Tinni had an affair with Golam Faruq Ovi. They would live together. The deposition of Tinni’s uncle Syed Rezaul Karim mentioned the affair between Tinni and Ovi.

Rezaul told the court that Tinni was the daughter of his younger brother. Tinni got married to Safqat Hossain Pial on 22 July in 1999. Pial would take away all Tinni's earnings after marriage. He would also beat up Tinni if she failed to give money. At one point of their continuous fights, Tinni’s father-in-law asked the couple to live in separate flats.

Tinni got acquainted with Ovi when she went to Bangkok for filming. Pial had an altercation with Tinni as she did not buy him a camera from Bangkok and they also fought over the issue.

Tinni informed Ovi of the incident who called Pial to divorce her saying that they will get married. Ovi then evicted Pial from his house. Since then Ovi and Tinni started living together.

‘Ovi was in Tinni’s house that night’

The verdict says the investigation officer in the charge sheet mentions that Ovi’s relations with Tinni got more intimate. Ovi started planning to murder Tinni when she became persistent in her demand to give her social recognition through marriage. Tinni also threatened Ovi to disclose their relationship to the media.

However, in the review of the testimony of the state witnesses, no witness said that Tinni pressured Ovi to marry her or that she would reveal the information about the relationship to the media if he did not marry.

Rather, Tinni told her father that she was in a relationship with Ovi. Testimony of the witnesses did not corroborate deterioration in the relationship between Tinni and Ovi.

According to the verdict, Tinni’s uncle said she went to his house on 10 November in 2002 and stayed there for 10 to 15 minutes. Within 15 to 20 minutes of Tinni’s departure, her domestic help Bina came to look for her. Bina told them, “Ovi bhai was looking for Tinni apa.”

The court quoted the statement of Shefali Akhter, another domestic help of Tinni's house, in the verdict. The verdict said that Shefali Akhter said, "That day, when Tinni Apu was not found at home, Ovi bhai stayed at Tinni Apu's house all night. Ovi left the next morning. He asked them to inform him if Tinni is found"

The verdict said that at around 7:30pm on 10 November, 2002, Tinni went to her aunt's house. Half an hour later, at around 8 or 8:30 pm, Ovi came to Tinni's house. From that time, Ovi stayed at Tinni’s house and stayed there until the morning. The statements of Shefali and Bina corroborate this.

Mentioning the statement of Tinni’s uncle, the court said, “Tinni said she would go to a party with Ovi. But none saw her going to any party with Ovi that night. Rather, Ovi stayed at Tinni’s house that night in search of her.”
Referring to the depositions of two domestic helps, the court observed, “Ovi did not meet Tinni on the night of the incident.”

“The allegation against Ovi is that she killed Tinni by hitting on her head and threw her body off Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge-1. But on the date shown in the case, Ovi was actually staying at Tinni’s house, which was proven by the depositions of the witnesses,” said the verdict.  

‘No eye witness to Tinni murder’

Investigation officer Md Mozammel Haque told the court that there was no eyewitness to Tinni murder. Citing the testimony of the investigation officer, the verdict said, "In response to the interrogation, the investigation officer said that Ovi stayed at Tinni's house the whole night as he didn’t find her. He said that there were no eyewitnesses to Tinni's murder. The investigation officer also said that before taking the statement of Sanjidul Hasan Emon, he did not get sufficient evidence to file a charge sheet in the case. He said in his statement that he had filed the charge sheet based on Emon’s statement.”

The court mentioned Sanjidul Hasan Emon’s deposition in the verdict. Emon told the court, “In 2008, I was on remand in the CID in another case. Then they told me that I had to be a witness in the Tinni murder case or I would be made an accused. Then I was forced to sign a paper. I don't know anything else. I came to know through the jail authorities that I had been made a witness only a few days ago. I didn’t tell the police that Ovi bhai told me he had killed Tinni.”

The court said in the verdict, “During the cross-examination, Emon told the court that he did not know Ovi and had never met him. He had never spoken to Ovi about any case-related matter. That means, the accused on whose deposition the investigation officer submitted the charge sheet said that he didn’t even know about being a witness and denied that Ovi told him anything.”

Dhaka district and session’s judge court’s chief public prosecutor Iqbal Hossain said an appeal would be filed with the high court against the verdict.