Hafizur’s bail stayed, ordered to surrender

The Appellate Division’s Chamber Court has stayed the bail granted to former army member Hafizur Rahman in the murder case of Sohagi Jahan Tanu, a student of Comilla Victoria Government College.

The order was passed on Thursday, 6 August, by Chamber Judge Justice Md. Rezaul Haque of the Appellate Division. The court also directed Hafizur Rahman to surrender within 24 hours.

Attorney General Ruhul Quddus Kajal said that if he fails to surrender within the stipulated time, law enforcement agencies have been instructed to arrest him.

Earlier, on 2 August, the High Court granted Hafizur Rahman interim bail for six months.

Following the order, he was released from jail on the evening of 4 August. However, the state challenged the High Court’s bail order before the Appellate Division’s Chamber Court. After hearing the petition, the court stayed his bail until August 9.

On the evening of 20 March, 2016, Sohagi Jahan Tanu went missing while on her way to a private tutoring session at a residence inside the Comilla Cantonment. After an extensive search, her body was found in bushes near the cantonment’s power house. Based on the condition of the body, it was initially suspected that she had been raped before being murdered.

The following day, Tanu’s father, Yar Hossain, then an office assistant at the Cantonment Board (now retired), filed a murder case against unidentified persons with Comilla Kotwali Model Police Station.
After a lengthy investigation, on the night of 22 April this year, the investigating agency, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), arrested former army member Hafizur Rahman from his residence in Keraniganj, Dhaka.