Tonu murder case: Ex-army man Hafizur arrested again for defying court order
Former army personnel Hafizur Rahman (52) has been arrested again in connection with the murder case of Sohagi Jahan Tonu, a student of Comilla Victoria Government College and a theater activist.
Around 8:00 AM today, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) arrested him from his residence in Keraniganj, Dhaka. Although the Appellate Division's Chamber Court had ordered him to surrender within 24 hours, he failed to comply.
PBI Inspector Md Tarikul Islam, the investigating officer of the case at its Kallyanpur unit, confirmed the arrest to Prothom Alo around 1:15pm.
"According to the directives of the Appellate Division's Chamber Court, Hafizur Rahman was supposed to surrender to the Cumilla court by 6:00 PM yesterday. However, he did not do so. We received a copy of the court's directive. In that context, he was arrested again from his residence in Keraniganj around 8:00 AM today. He will be produced before the Cumilla court today. He is currently in our custody," he said.
The PBI also confirmed the re-arrest in a press release issued by its South Kallyanpur (Organised Crime-North) unit in the afternoon.
According to relevant sources, Hafizur Rahman received a six-month interim bail from the High Court on 2 August. Later, at 7:00 PM on 4 August, he was released from Comilla Central Jail. On Thursday, the state filed an application in the Chamber Court of the Appellate Division seeking a stay on the bail granted by the High Court.
Around 6:00 PM that day, Attorney General Md Ruhul Quddus Kazal moved the application with special permission from the Chamber Court. Later, after hearing the state's application, Chamber Judge Md Rezaul Haque stayed the bail and ordered him to surrender within 24 hours.
Hafizur Rahman is a former Senior Warrant Officer of the army. On 21 April this year, PBI arrested him from his residence in Keraniganj, Dhaka. The next day, after collecting his DNA samples and producing him in court, a three-day remand was granted.
He was serving at Comilla Cantonment when Tonu was killed. He remained at Cumilla Central Jail until his release on bail on 4 August.
On the evening of 20 March 2016, Sohagi Jahan Tonu went to tutor at a house inside the Comilla Cantonment. But she never returned home.
Later, after searching, Tonu's body was found in the bushes not far from the cantonment's power house. It was initially apparent that she was raped and murdered. The next day, her father Yar Hossain (currently retired), an office assistant of the Cantonment Board, filed a murder case against unidentified accused at Comilla Kotwali Model Police Station.
On 4 April and 12 June 2016, the forensic department of Comilla Medical College Hospital stated in two separate autopsy reports that the cause of Tonu's death could not be determined.
The final hope for this murder investigation was the DNA report. In May 2017, CID informed the media that DNA testing of samples taken from Tonu's clothing had found the sperm of three men. Additionally, a team from CID interrogated three individuals suspected by Tonu's mother at the Dhaka Cantonment from 25 to 27 October 2017. However, CID did not reveal their names to the media at that time.
In May this year, PBI stated that another person’s involvement has been found in the samples recovered from Tonu's clothing. With this, DNA tests have found samples from four individuals on Tonu's clothing.
While information regarding the sperm of the previous three individuals had come to light, a blood sample from a newly identified individual was found on Tonu's clothing.