Renowned Pakistani film actress Jharna Basak, popularly known as Shabnam, had to return to her hometown in Bangladesh in the late 1990s after she was gang-raped at her house in Lahore in front of her husband and their only son, Ronnie Ghosh, and then denied justice.
On May 13, 1978, armed men belonging to influential families had entered Shabnam’s home in Gulberg, Lahore. After committing a robbery, the accused also gang raped Shabnam, in front of her husband, music composer Robin Ghosh, and their son.
The actress had named seven people in the case, including Mohammad Farooq Bandial, a politician from district Khushab, Punjab, Wasim Yaqoob Butt, Jamil Ahmad, Tahir Tanvir, Jamshed Akbar Sahi, Agha Aqueel Ahmad and Mohammad Muzaffar.
The accused were tried by the Special Military Court under section 412 PPC. The accused managed to influence local police and gang rape was not mentioned in the First Information Report. Five accused were convicted of robbery and were sentenced to death.
The actress and her family were pressurised into pardoning the culprits.
After she was denied justice, the actress chose London as another place of residence for her family but moved to Dhaka, when she left Pakistan in the late 1990s.
Introduced by legendary actor Waheed Murad in the Pakistani Film industry, Shabnam worked in a total of 170 films, including 152 Urdu films, 14 Bengali and 4 Punjabi films.
