Staff Reporter, Dhaka : One of the paintings created by the legendary and most popular author, novelist, short-story writer, and filmmaker late Humayun Ahmed, who is a towering personality in the history of Bengali Literature, which went missing about 10 years ago has been recently returned to his family members.

Before the untimely demise, the legendary author was living in the USA to undergo medical treatment. During that time, the late Author, while spending time with his young son Nishat Humayun created 24 watercolor paintings. Later, upon receiving request from a then New York based couple Biswajit Saha and Ruma Chowdhury the series of paintings were allowed by Humayun Ahmed and his wife Meher Afroz Shaon for display at a Book Fair in the USA, under the condition that the paintings will be returned to the Author’s Family in Bangladesh once the exhibition is completed.

After the tragic passing of the late Author Humayun Ahmed, his family members repeatedly contacted Biswajit Saha and Ruma Chowdhury to return the paintings. Finally, in 2013 Ruma Chowdhury returned the painting to the late Author’s mother Mrs. Ayesha Foiz, but some of the paintings out of 24 were still missing.

All of a sudden in 2021 one of the paintings out of the missing ones appeared for display in an exhibition in Cumilla, which sparked curiosity among everyone including the late Author’s fans and family members.

Later, Meher Afroz Shaon, wife of the late Author, filed a complaint to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrates Court, Dhaka, seeking to recover the missing painting. The CMM Court assigned the matter to PBI for conducting investigation. PBI officers recovered the painting from Cumilla and submitted them to the custody of the CMM Court.

After almost two years of proceedings at the CMM Court, Learned Magistrate Mr. Rajesh Chowdhury, CMM Court Dhaka, passed an order for returning the painting to the complainant Meher Afroz Shaon and exonerated the accused person.

Barrister Hamidul Mishbah, Advocate, Supreme Court, confirmed that the designated officials of the CMM Court has handed over the watercolor painting on 22 August 2023, and Advocate Gazi Mahbub Alam and Advocate S M Shihab Uddin received the painting from the CMM Court on behalf of by the Complainant Meher Afroz Shaon.

In this regard, Meher Afroz Shaon stated that “we are relieved to have found the missing watercolor painting and feel that justice has been done through Court’s intervention. Getting the accused persons convicted was not our intention, our intention was to rescue and secure the missing artwork created by late Humayun Ahmed. We are grateful to the Honorable Court, PBI Officials and the team of Lawyers”.