Nearly five years after Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers stormed her Banani residence and led her away in handcuffs, actress Pori Moni has finally broken her silence with a pointed, emotional statement directed squarely at the state.
The decision by Pori Moni to speak out follows the appearance of Lieutenant Colonel (retd) Khairul Islam, former intelligence chief of RAB, who was directly involved in the raid of August 2021, on a televised talk show recently. In the programme hosted by Sharmin Chowdhury, Khairul Islam admitted that the operation was carried out on direct orders from RAB’s then-director general and former IGP Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun. The DG reportedly called him suddenly and told the team to “execute” the order to detain the actress, he said. “There were unspecified complaints and allegations of blackmail against her,” the DG was allegedly quoted as saying, which Khairul Islam himself now says “were not justified” when asked why.
Pori Moni’s Answer: “Was It Legal?”
In a lengthy Facebook post late at night, Pori Moni thanked the former RAB official for what she termed a public confession of truth. The chapter had left permanent scars on her as an artist, a woman and a human being, and had severely damaged her personal, social and professional life,” she wrote. She said she was kept behind bars for almost a month under what she called a false and fabricated narcotics case.
The actress posed a series of pointed questions to the state: “Will you ever be able to return those lost days? Will she ever have her honour, peace of mind and years back? And will the state be held to account for the false and misleading perception it created in the public mind about her?
She was careful to frame her statement not as a call for revenge, but as a demand for truth and justice. “I don’t want to demean or humiliate anyone,” she said. “Just that no innocent person should ever have to go through what I went through.”
The Case to Date
RAB first conducted a raid on Pori Moni’s home on August 4, 2021, and claimed to have recovered foreign liquor, crystal meth and an LSD blot from the house. She was remanded several times and spent weeks in jail before being released on bail. The narcotics case against her is still pending and is at the evidence recording stage in Dhaka’s Special Judge Court-10. Separately, two linked cases arising out of her own June 2021 complaint of an alleged assault at Dhaka Boat Club are also awaiting trial.
Still no official word.
So far, no official comment has been issued by Khairul Islam’s superiors from that period or current RAB authorities on the fresh allegations. The silence has only fanned public debate over the case, with many seeing Khairul Islam’s admission as a rare concession from within the force itself.
Back to a Painful Chapter
The case has since been called one of the most talked-about media trials in Bangladesh’s entertainment history for Pori Moni — one that drew comparisons with similar celebrity-targeted controversies in the region. The actress seems determined to make sure this episode is not swept under the carpet with her latest statement, as the legal proceedings surrounding it crawl through the courts.
Summary
Dhallywood actress Pori Moni has given a long statement on Facebook claiming that her arrest by RAB in 2021 was illegal and staged on the orders of the then chief of the force, reviving a case that rocked Bangladesh’s entertainment industry.
