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The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) has re-arrested retired army personnel Hafizur Rahman in connection with the 2016 murder of Sohagi Jahan Tonu in Cumilla.
PBI Police Super Abu Yousuf confirmed the arrest on Saturday afternoon, saying Hafizur was taken into custody from his residence in Keraniganj, Dhaka.
He said the arrest was made in compliance with a court order after Hafizur failed to surrender within the stipulated time. The process of producing him before a court in Cumilla was under way, the PBI official said.
The re-arrest follows an order from the Chamber Judge Court of the Appellate Division, which had stayed Hafizur’s bail granted by the High Court and directed him to surrender.
Hafizur was initially arrested in the Tonu murder case on April 22 and subsequently sent to jail. He was released on bail on August 4 after the High Court granted him bail.
Two days later, on August 6, the Chamber Judge Court stayed the High Court’s bail order. The court directed Hafizur to surrender within 24 hours and instructed law enforcement agencies to arrest him if he failed to comply with the directive.
As he did not surrender within the stipulated period, the PBI arrested him from his Keraniganj residence on Saturday.
The case relates to the murder of Sohagi Jahan Tonu, a college student who was found dead inside the Cumilla Cantonment in March 2016.
On the evening of March 20, 2016, Tonu reportedly left her home to go to a student’s residence for tutoring inside the cantonment. She subsequently went missing. Her body was later recovered from a bush near the cantonment’s power house.
There were allegations that she had been raped before being killed, although the circumstances surrounding her death have remained the subject of a long-running investigation.
The following day, Tonu’s father, Yaar Hossain, an office assistant at the Cantonment Board who has since retired, filed a murder case with Cumilla Kotwali Model Police Station against unidentified persons.
The investigation was later handed over to the PBI, which has been investigating the case.
Hafizur was first arrested by the PBI from his Keraniganj residence on the night of April 21 this year and was subsequently shown arrested in the case.
His latest arrest comes as the long-running case enters another significant legal stage, following the intervention of the Appellate Division’s Chamber Judge.
The PBI is now taking steps to produce Hafizur before the appropriate court in Cumilla in accordance with the latest judicial order.