First Arrest in Tonu Murder Case After 10 Years: Former Army Officer Remanded

Ten years after the sensational murder of Sohagi Jahan Tonu, a student of Comilla Victoria Government College, the first formal arrest has been made. Hafizur Rahman, a former Senior Warrant Officer of the Bangladesh Army, has been arrested and placed on a three-day remand in connection with the case.

On Wednesday afternoon (April 22), Comilla Senior Judicial Magistrate Mominul Haque passed the order following a hearing.

Earlier, the investigating officer from the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), Tarikul Islam, arrested Hafizur Rahman from his residence. He was subsequently produced before the Comilla Sadar Court.

This breakthrough follows a significant move on April 6, when the seventh investigating officer of this high-profile case sought court permission to cross-match the DNA samples of three suspects: former Sergeant Zahid, former Warrant Officer Hafizur Rahman, and former Soldier Shahinul Alam. It has been reported that all three suspects have since retired from military service.

On the evening of March 20, 2016, Sohagi Jahan Tonu went missing after going to a house inside the Comilla Cantonment for private tutoring. Her body was later discovered in a bush near the Cantonment’s power house. Initial evidence suggested she had been raped before being murdered.

The following day, Tonu’s father, Yaar Hossain—then an office assistant at the Cantonment Board (now retired)—filed a murder case against unknown individuals at the Comilla Kotwali Model Station.

The case drew widespread national outrage, especially after two separate autopsy reports (published on April 4 and June 12, 2016) by the Forensic Department of Comilla Medical College Hospital failed to determine a clear cause of death, leading to years of protests and demands for justice.