Tonu murder case: Ex-army man's bail stayed, asked to surrender within 24 hrs

The Appellate Division's Chamber Court has stayed the bail of retired army personnel Hafizur Rahman in the murder case of Sohagi Jahan Tonu, a student of Cumilla Victoria Government College and ordered him to surrender within 24 hours.

Chamber Judge Md Rezaul Haque gave this order on Thursday, following the hearing of a petition filed by the state against the bail granted by the High Court.

On 2 August, Hafizur Rahman received a six-month interim bail from the High Court in that case. Following the bail order, he walked out of Cumilla Central Jail on the evening of 4 August.

Seeking a stay on the bail granted by the High Court, the state filed a leave to appeal (an application seeking permission to appeal) today. The application appeared on the court's supplementary cause list today.

According to relevant sources, Attorney General Md Ruhul Quddus Kazal moved the application with special permission from the Chamber Court at around 6:00 PM.

Later, he told Prothom Alo that the chamber judge has stayed the High Court's bail order granted to the accused in the Tonu murder case. Hafizur Rahman has been ordered to surrender within 24 hours. If he fails to surrender within this time, police have been directed to arrest him.

The chamber judge has set next Sunday for the next order.

Hafizur Rahman (52) had been in Cumilla Central Jail since 25 April. He is a former Senior Warrant Officer of the army. He was working at the Cumilla cantonment at the time of the Tonu murder in 2016.

In 2023, he retired or was sent into retirement from the army. Police arrested him on 21 April from his residence in Keraniganj, Dhaka. The next day, 22 April, in the morning before being produced before the Cumilla court, Hafizur Rahman's DNA samples were collected at the CID forensic lab in Dhaka.

Tonu disappeared on the evening of 20 March 2016 after going to a private tutoring session inside Cumilla Cantonment. Her body was later found in the bushes near the cantonment power house. Investigators initially believed she had been raped before being murdered.

The next day, her father, Yar Hossain, then an office assistant at the Cantonment Board (now retired), filed a murder case against unidentified accused at Cumilla Kotwali Model Police Station.