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Published : 22 Apr 2026, 07:21 PM
A retired member of Bangladesh Army has been arrested in the Sohagi Jahan Tonu murder case, 10 years after the Comilla Victoria Government College student and theatre activist was killed.
He is the first person to be arrested in this case.
On Tuesday, investigation officer Tariqul Islam, an inspector of the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) in Dhaka, said the arrestee, Hafizur Rahman, is a retired senior warrant officer and was stationed at Cumilla Cantonment at the time of the killing.
"The suspect was produced before the Cumilla Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court with a seven-day remand plea. Following the hearing, Judge Md Mominul Huq granted a three-day remand," said Tariqul.
Meanwhile, Tonu’s parents and her younger brother, identified only as Rubel, arrived at the court at 5pm.
According to court sources, the court recently sought an update on the investigation from the PBI.
In response, the investigating officer appeared in court on Apr 6 and filed an application to test the DNA profiles of three individuals.
The judge subsequently granted the request.
The investigating officer, however, did not disclose the names of the three individuals whose DNA profiles were sought for testing.
The information regarding the first arrest in the Tonu murder case comes two weeks after that application.
Tonu’s body was recovered from a forest near the power house of Cumilla Cantonment on the evening of Mar 20, 2016.
The following day, her father Yaar Hossain filed a murder case against unidentified individuals at the Cumilla Kotwali Model Police Station.
Initially, local police and the district Detective Branch (DB) investigated the case, followed by a prolonged investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), yet they failed to solve the case.
Later, following orders from the Police Headquarters, the CID handed over the case files to the PBI Headquarters in Dhaka on Oct 21, 2020.
Inspector Md Mujibur Rahman of PBI investigated the case for nearly four years.
In September 2024, Inspector Md Tariqul Islam took charge as the sixth investigating officer of the case.
