Tonu Murder Case: Former army member arrested after 10 years
An accused has been arrested for the first time in the murder case of Sohagi Jahan Tonu, a history student of Comilla Victoria Government College and a theatre activist. The court has granted a three-day remand for the suspect.
The arrested individual, Hafizur Rahman (52), is a former Senior Warrant Officer of the Bangladesh Army. He retired from the army in 2023. At the time of the murder, he was stationed at Cumilla Cantonment.
On Tuesday, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) arrested Hafizur Rahman from his residence in Keraniganj, Dhaka.
On Wednesday afternoon, he was produced before the court of Senior Judicial Magistrate Md Mominul Haque in Cumilla.
The investigation officer, PBI Inspector Md Tarikul Islam, sought a seven-day remand, but the court granted three days after the hearing. Tonu’s father, mother, and brother were present in court.
Earlier, on 6 April, the investigation officer appeared before the same court following a summon. He informed the court about the progress of the case and sought permission to match DNA samples of three suspects believed to be involved in the murder. The court approved the request.
One of the three is Senior Warrant Officer Hafizur Rahman. The other two are Sergeant Zahid and soldier Shaheen Alam, both of whom were also stationed at Cumilla Cantonment at the time and have since retired from the army.
The plaintiff in the case and Tonu’s father, Yar Hossain, claims that the soldier’s name is not Shaheen Alam but Zahid. According to him, they have been mentioning these names from the beginning. They were not aware of any soldier named Shaheen at the time; rather, the name Zahid had repeatedly come up in discussions.
Investigation officer Md Tarikul Islam told Prothom Alo that Hafizur Rahman was arrested in a drive in Keraniganj. He was shown arrested in the Tonu murder case and produced before the Cumilla court with a request for seven days’ remand, of which three days were granted.
“We are taking him back to Dhaka. After interrogation during remand, the process for DNA testing will be followed,” he said.
On the evening of 20 March, 2016, Tonu went to tutor at a house inside Cumilla Cantonment but did not return home. Later, after a search, her body was found in bushes near the power house inside the cantonment. The next day, her father, Yar Hossain, then an office assistant at the Cantonment Board (now retired), filed a murder case with Kotwali Model Police Station against unidentified suspects.
Two autopsy reports, published on 4 April and 12 June, 2016, by the forensic department of Cumilla Medical College Hospital, stated that the cause of Tonu’s death could not be determined.
DNA evidence was considered the last hope in the investigation. In May 2017, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) informed the media that DNA testing of samples collected from Tanu’s clothing found the presence of semen from three men.
Additionally, from 25 to 27 October, 2017, a CID team interrogated three individuals suspected by Tanu’s mother at Dhaka Cantonment. However, their names were not disclosed to the media at that time.