B'desh police releases play director after interrogation

Dhaka, Aug 7 Police in Bangladesh have released television play director, Chayanika Chowdhury after interrogating her for being "well-acquainted" with arrested actress Pori Moni.

She was released at around 12 a.m. on Saturday after being in questioned for over three hours.

On Friday evening, Chowdhury was picked up from Panthapath in the capital and taken to the Detective Branch (DB) for interrogation, Hafiz Akhtar, additional commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told .

The intimacy between Shamsunnahar Smrity, popularly known as Pori Moni, and Chowdhury is widely known to the Bangladeshi media.

The actress addresses the director as her 'mother'. During a recent press conference, Chowdhury was seen beside the actress while the latter claimed that she was abused.

Pori Moni was detained by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Wednesday night following a four-hour raid in her residence at Banani in Dhaka.

Prior to her detention, the RAB had claimed they recovered drugs and liquor from her possession during the raid.

Pori Monio had claimed that she was assaulted on June 8 by Nasir Uddin Mahmood, former president of the Boat club and also director of Gulshan All Community Club, a businessman and politician.

"We have found from the beginning of the investigation that various activities including drug business were going on to destroy the children of upper-middle-class families. We found more names after interrogating Pori Moni. One of them was her costume designer Junayed Karim Jimmy," Harun Or Rashid, joint commissioner of the detective branch of the police, said.

"Everybody was asking for ‘why Pori Moni's so-called mother‘Chayanika Chowdhury was not being interrogated'. At the end of the interrogation, we will hand her over to her family for the time being. We will call her later if we need to question her again."

He said during the interrogation, Pori Moni made huge allegations against Chowdhury, Rashid said.

"She was released after interrogation on a condition that she would come whenever she would be called for."