Police raided the Mohakhali house of private TV station ETV chairman Abdus Salam's wife early on Saturday after his company filed a case charging her with illegal possession of its three vehicles and papers. Armed with a search warrant that a court issued on Oct 1, police raided Farzana Shilpi's house-336 at Road-23 of DOHS in the wee hours. Salam also went there with his men and lawyer.

Sub-inspector of Kafrul Police Station Matiar Rahman bdnews24.com at 1:45am that ETV lawyer Asaduzzaman Babul filed the case. Police waited outside the closed gate of the house for more than two hours before entering at 3am to retrieve the cars, he added. Salam claimed the house to be his while Shilpi said Salam had signed the papers of the house in her name. "It was said from inside the house to send the search order through beneath the gate. But police can not do that," Rahman said at around 2am.

A man by the name of 'Shamim', who introduced himself as Shilpi's brother, told bdnews24.com that Salam had beaten up his sister last Wednesday. He later sent police to harass his sister, he also alleged. There is also a dispute between Salam and his sister over the ownership of the house, he added. A court has handed the ownership of the house to his sister, he also said. Salam has a four-year old son with Shilpi, his second wife.

A bdnews24.com correspondent who was standing in front of the house at 3:30am heard a woman crying on an upper floor. Shamim then called bdnews24.com again and passed the phone to Shilpi. "You save me, please. Salam has now got hold of the keys of his vehicles. Now, he will beat me up," she said, sobbing. "Please come into house." She claimed that she was tortured by Salam and that she owned the house. Salam, however, dismissed the allegations as 'baseless'. He told bdnews24.com: "It's entirely our family issue. The incident has been staged to smear me."

-bdnews