CUMILLA, April 22: A court in Cumilla on Wednesday granted a three-day remand for a retired warrant officer of the Bangladesh Army in connection with the murder of Sohagi Jahan Tonu, marking the first arrest in the case a decade after the killing.
Senior Judicial Magistrate Mominul Haque passed the order at Cumilla Sadar Cognisance Court-1 after the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) produced the suspect, Hafizur Rahman, before the court.
Ex-army warrant officer remanded
Investigating Officer Tarikul Islam of PBI Dhaka had earlier arrested Hafizur Rahman from his residence in Keraniganj and brought him to Cumilla.
The arrest is the first breakthrough in the high-profile case that shocked the nation in 2016 and remained unresolved despite multiple investigations.
Tonu, a student and part-time tutor, went missing on the evening of March 20, 2016, after travelling to a residence inside Cumilla Cantonment for a tuition session. Her body was later recovered from a wooded area near the cantonment's power house.
The following day, her father, Yar Hossain, filed a murder case against unidentified persons with Cumilla Kotwali Model Police Station.
Over the years, the case was investigated by local police, the Detective Branch and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), but no significant progress was made. In October 2020, the case was transferred to PBI on the directive of Police Headquarters.
Earlier this month, the seventh investigating officer sought permission to cross-match DNA samples of three suspects-retired army personnel Sergeant Zahid, Warrant Officer Hafizur Rahman and Soldier Jahangir Alam-as part of the ongoing probe.
Court officials said the case has seen around 80 hearing dates so far, with seven investigating officers from four different agencies handling the investigation.
The latest development has raised fresh expectations of progress in one of the country's most widely discussed unsolved murder cases.
