Actor Zaher Alvi Remanded for Two Days Over Wife's Suicide Provocation Case

A Dhaka metropolitan court today, Wednesday (June 24), placed popular television actor Md. Niamat Ullah Bhuiyan, widely known as Zaher Alvi, on a two-day police remand for interrogation in a case filed over provoking his wife's suicide.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Al-Biruni Mir passed the order in the afternoon following a comprehensive hearing. The state counsel, Advocate Harun-or-Rashid, confirmed the court's executive order to the media.

Earlier on June 21, Inspector Md. Abdul Malek of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Detective Branch (Mirpur Division)—the designated investigation officer of the case—submitted a formal prayer seeking a 10-day police remand for the prime accused. The court had scheduled today's hearing in the active presence of the accused.

According to the official remand application, Alvi routinely subjected his wife, Iqra, to severe emotional abuse, public humiliation, and targeted psychological harassment by uploading derogatory and provocative statuses on his public Facebook profile.

The police report further noted that while legally married to Iqra, Alvi uploaded intimate photographs with another woman on February 27 alongside highly provocative remarks, which severely traumatized his wife. Investigating officers emphasized that a thorough remand was imperative to unearth the underlying motives behind the tragedy and to trace other absconding accomplices tied to the case.

During today's session, defense counsels strongly argued for the total cancellation of the remand prayer and moved for bail, a move aggressively countered by the state prosecution. After hearing both sides, the magistrate granted a two-day window for custodial interrogation.

The development follows Alvi’s surrender before the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Kamal Uddin on June 18, where his initial bail petition was rejected, resulting in his immediate detention.

According to the case files, on February 28, family members discovered Iqra’s body hanging from a ceiling fan with a scarf inside their residence in the Mirpur DOHS area of the capital. She was immediately rushed to Kurmitola General Hospital by relatives and the landlord, where attending physicians declared her dead upon arrival.

On the very same night, Iqra’s father, Kabir Hayat Khan, lodged a formal case with the Pallabi Police Station. He alleged that systematic, long-term domestic disputes, financial extortion, and persistent physical and psychological torture by the actor forced his daughter to take her own life.

Zaher Alvi and Iqra tied the knot back in 2010 and share a young son. Earlier on June 4, the actor’s mother, Nasrin Sultana Shiuli—who is also arrayed as a co-accused in the structural lawsuit—surrendered before the court and successfully secured interim bail.