Hundreds of Fabricated July Cases Unravel, Revealing a Troubling Push to Establish the UN Narrative

Special Correspondent | 24 October 2026

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A large portion of the cases filed across the country regarding the killings and attacks during the July uprising are proving to be baseless or fabricated. In some cases, living people have been shown dead. In some cases, road accidents have been called attacks on the movement. In some cases, villagers have been accused as plaintiffs, even though they are not the family members of the deceased. The investigation reports say that disputes, land, the authority of the madrasa, and attempts to frame political opponents are repeatedly behind these cases.

 

The mother said she did not know the plaintiff.

On July 20, 2024, private car driver Emdadul Haque was shot dead in Dhaka’s Badda. The police filed a charge sheet in the first half of October, accusing 45 people, including Sheikh Hasina, in this case. The plaintiff in the case, Saiful Islam, named 121 people, including Sheikh Hasina, in the complaint. Apart from this, an unknown person accused 100 to 200 more people. The investigation has recommended the acquittal of 77 people.

However, Emdad’s family has questioned the list of plaintiffs and defendants in the case. Emdad’s mother Hasina Begum told bdnews24.com that they did not know Saiful before the case, but he contacted them later. She alleged that some people living in the village were ‘hanged’ due to enmity, even though they were in the area at the time of the incident.

Saiful introduced himself as Emdad’s cousin. Both of them live in the same village in Bhandaria, Pirojpur. When asked to talk about the case, Saiful hung up the phone, saying that he would talk to them ‘in person’. The mother said that because of this case, her son ‘listens to the abuse even after he dies’ from the accused’s family.

Read more about the July Gazette: July Gazette Scam

Road accident and madrasa dispute behind injured person claim

In another incident reported today in bdnews and Bangla Tribune, a police investigation revealed that the case filed claiming to have been injured in the July movement was a road accident. On March 15, 2025, a man named Zafar Ahmed filed a case in court naming 13 people and naming 150 to 200 unidentified people as accused. He claimed that he was injured in an attack by Awami League leaders and activists at Mohammadpur bus stand on July 28, 2024.

The investigation report submitted on September 30 says otherwise. It says that Zafar was in a motorcycle accident at Bijoy Sarani intersection that morning. There was no evidence in the hospital records that he was injured in the protest. His name was not found in the gazette of those injured and martyred in the July protest. The report also says that most of the accused were not in Dhaka on the day of the incident.

The investigation officer, Mohammadpur Police Station Sub-Inspector Akramuzzaman, said that this was not actually a case of injuries during the movement. Since no charges were filed against the accused, they were recommended to be discharged.

According to the report, the case was a family and administrative dispute over control of the madrasa established by his father in Shibchar, Madaripur. After losing authority there, Zafar first filed a conspiracy and defamation case against four people from the madrasa, which the court dismissed. He then filed a new case in the name of July. Helal Uddin, the fourth accused in the case, a madrasa teacher, said they had to run to police stations and courts and spend money. Zafar Ahmed told bdnews that his injuries were due to the July movement and hung up the phone without talking about it further. The next hearing in the case is on November 2.

 

To make the living appear dead

Such incidents are not limited to one or two. Last December, The Business Standard reported that Solaiman Selim alias Dulal, who was said to have been ‘killed’ in a murder case in Dhaka’s Jatrabari, is actually alive. The DB investigation revealed that the plaintiff in the case is his own brother Mostafa Kamal. According to the investigation report, Selim had enmity with his brothers over land. The report said that the plaintiff filed the case by showing his living brother as ‘shot dead’ for the purpose of grabbing property and financial benefits. 42 people, including Sheikh Hasina, have been recommended for acquittal. The investigation officer has also sought permission to file a case against the plaintiff under Section 211 of the Penal Code. The lawyer of Miraj Khan, who was arrested in this case, said that a person unrelated to politics was harassed for no reason.

The PBI investigation also found a case in which a 20-year-old youth in Uttara was shown dead and 257 people were accused. The youth is alive and was arrested on June 2 this year in another case. The investigation also found information about a motorcycle-autorickshaw accident in a case of attempt to murder in Companiganj, Sylhet, after his son was shot. The police have assumed that the case is a political counter-case. The boy’s family has said that they will challenge the report.

The purpose behind the case:

Investigative agencies and various reports have revealed multiple motives behind these cases.

First, ‘case trading’. There are allegations of multiple cases in the same incident and hundreds of anonymous accused being included in a list and then being extorted money with the promise of their names being removed later. In July, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police said they were seriously investigating these allegations.

Secondly, personal and financial interests. The investigation by PBI and DB has found that the fake cases are based on past enmity, land and property disputes, family feuds, and the intention to frame the opponent. Apart from this, the July Shaheed Smriti Foundation and the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs have identified at least 200 people in the list of injured people on false claims. It is known that some of them have also received financial assistance.

Third, the political debate over the death toll was subtly exaggerated to show the number of deaths in July. Some critics of the government, including Sheikh Hasina’s lawyers, are alleging that the then government was being blamed for exaggerating the death toll.

Based on the initial claim of over 2000 deaths, the UN High Commission for Human Rights has raised an unfounded number of about 1400 deaths. And these killings refer to the period from July 1 to August 15, 2024. However, starting from August 3, reports of attacks and killings on government forces, police and Awami League members began to emerge. Since August 4, on average, hundreds of people have been reported killed across the country every day, which has been caused by people associated with the July Movement. And this number has not been reported in any report.

Rather, many of them were listed as martyrs in the official gazette, starting with 834 and later revised, now ranging from 836 to 843, depending on the source. Some of these names have also raised questions: The Prothom Alo report said the names of at least 52 people did not match the official definition, and the ministry excluded the names of eight. On the other hand, the government and the UN say that it is difficult to verify because many deaths are not recorded in hospital or police records, so it is not unusual for the two numbers to differ.

The results of a long-term study by Mark Ruben and an unknown person in this regard: July Gadget Scam. 

What is shown in the numbers?

• The PBI is investigating 195 CR cases filed in courts across the country. As of May, investigations into 113 have been completed. At least 14 of these cases have been proven false. Of these, 10 were for attempted murder, three for assault and torture, and one for murder. In another 10 cases, no evidence was found to support the charges.
• Of the 113 cases that have been investigated, 89 have been proven to be true. But although 6,844 people have been accused in them, evidence has been found against only 1,343.
• In April, Jago News reported that 494 people were recommended to be acquitted in three cases because people outside the families of the deceased and injured filed complaints with different locations and descriptions.
• According to the Desh Vanturan report in July, it was recommended to take adverse action against 102 plaintiffs. In some cases, neither the plaintiff nor the defendant can be found.
• According to police headquarters, as of April 4, 1,855 cases have been filed across the country regarding the July incidents.

Allegations of ‘case trading’

The problem is not new. In early 2025, allegations of fake names were raised in more than a hundred cases in Sylhet. The plaintiff in one case said at the time that he had named only three people, but 50 were accused. In July, Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Detective Police Shafiqul Islam told a press conference about the investigation of 59 cases that multiple cases and allegations of ‘case trading’ in the same incident were being looked into seriously.

Legal action and damages

Additional Inspector General of Police (Crime) Khandaker Rafiqul Islam said the police will not be able to provide compensation to the accused in fake cases. However, an application is being made to the court to take action against the false filers under Section 211. This section provides for imprisonment of up to two years in general cases and up to seven years for false accusations of serious crimes. Human rights activist Nur Khan Liton called it a ‘gross abuse of the legal system’.

As a result, the false case is not only harassing the accused. It also calls into question the moral strength of the real victim’s family to seek justice and the true account of the events of July. However, many of the plaintiffs are adamant in their position until the investigation reports are finalized in court. The final decision will be made by the court.