22 months of Tonu murder: Probe progressing at snail’s pace

Investigators have failed to identify the killers of Comilla Victoria College student Sohagi Jahan Tonu in nearly two years after her murder. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which has been investigating the case, has made no headway during this period, irking the victim’s family members who demanded the investigators interrogate the suspects. Tonu’s body was recovered from a bush near her house inside the Mainamati Cantonment on the night of March 20, 2016. The ISPR later insisted that the body was found in an area adjacent to the cantonment. Her father Yaar Hossain filed a case with Kotwali model police station the next day. The CID was given the responsibility to handle the case from April 1 that year after local police and Detective Branch failed the crack the case. After two post-mortem examinations, the Comilla Medical College’s Forensic Department did not mention any specific reason for the theatre activist’s death. The first report released on April 4, 2016, concluded that no sign of murder or rape was found. The second report was released on June 12. Evidence of sexual intercourse and the sperm of three people were also found. However, the CID did not say anything about matching DNA to find the rapists. A CID team interrogated several people at the Dhaka cantonment from October 25 to 27 last year. The investigators said those interrogated were the suspects named by Tonu’s mother. However, the names and identities of those suspects were not disclosed. CID officials interrogated Tonu’s parents and two cousins on November 22 last year at the Dhaka CID office. Ganajagaran Mancha’s Comilla unit organizer Khairul Anam Raihan said the case was not making progress. “The CID is dawdling with the case,” he said. “We demand punishment of the killers.” Tonu’s mother Anowara Begum said: “The names of the killers can be known if Sergeant Zahid and his wife are interrogated. The CID is only wasting time by interrogating people. Tonu’s body was found after she had gone to give private tuition at Sergeant Zahid’s home. I demand a swift trial of the killers.” Investigation officer and Comilla CID’s Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police Jalal Uddin Ahmed said they were working to identify the killers. “We are interrogating the suspects again,” he said. “We hope to identify the killers within a short time.”