The hearing of indictment on drug charges against Dhallywood actor Shamsunnahar Smriti, known as Pori Moni, has been deferred as the actor was ‘feeling too sick to appear in court.’
Judge Nazrul Islam of Dhaka's Tenth Special Judge Court on Tuesday set January 2 for the next hearing in the case.
Pori Moni experienced a vertigo attack and was unable to reach the court, said her counsel Nilanjana Rifat Surovi.
The two others accused in the case, Ashraful Islam Dipu and Kabir Hossain, appeared in court and secured bails.
On November 15, a Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge’s court accepted the charge sheet filed by the investigators, before transferring the matter to the special judge’s court.
On October 26, the actor, who was granted permanent bail, turned herself in to make a fresh bail plea as the case was transferred to the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court after the submission of the charge sheet.
Inspector Kazi Mostafa Kamal of the police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) submitted the charge sheet on October 4, against Pori Moni and her associates Dipu and Hossain.
Pori Moni was arrested on August 4 after the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) conducted a raid at her home in Dhaka’s Banani. The following day she was accused in a narcotics case filed at Banani police station.
The CID received three rounds of remand, totalling seven days, to interrogate Pori Moni in the case. After the remand terms expired on August 21, she was ordered to Kashimpur Central Women’s Prison by the court.
She finally received bail on August 31 and was released from the prison the next day after nearly a month in detention.
The raid on her home came months after she accused a businessman of trying to rape and murder her at Dhaka Boat Club.
The High Court questioned the necessity of her three rounds of remand, concluding that remand orders one after another amounted to “abuse of power”.
