Friend Deep remanded again

Ahmed Shahriar Reza Deep, friend of former Air Force officer K M Tahsif Sauri, spent four days in police remand in connection with Tahsif’s murder case.

The investigating officer did not get answers to all his questions during the interrogation, so Deep will be held and questioned for a further three days.

After the four-day remand ended, the case’s investigating officer, Inspector Firoz Uddin of Tongi River Police Outpost in Gazipur, applied to the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday for a further seven days’ remand, citing eight grounds. Deep’s lawyer, Mutasim Billah, applied for bail and for the remand to be rejected.

After hearing both sides, Metropolitan Magistrate Md Hasan Shahadat ordered a three-day remand.

After the order at midday, Deep was taken away from the court under police guard. He had been brought to court earlier that morning. Even in the dock, Deep wore a helmet and a bulletproof jacket and was handcuffed.

Former Flight Lieutenant Tahsif left his home in Uttara, Dhaka, on the evening of 27 October at Deep’s invitation. His body was found in the Turag river the next day.

Tahsif’s father, K M Enayetul Karim, then filed a murder case against unnamed persons at Uttarkhan police station, after which police arrested Deep.

A young woman named Jerika Tasnim Disha was arrested after that. CCTV footage showed Deep and Disha together with Tahsif at a bar in Uttara that night.

Police also took Disha into remand while Deep was in custody for questioning. As Deep’s earlier remand has ended, he has now been remanded again.

The eight grounds the investigating officer gave in the fresh remand application were: to verify, analyse and examine Deep’s presence by reviewing the relevant CCTV footage collected; to find out whom the accused contacted when he moved away for 15 to 20 minutes while at Nest Bar and Restaurant with the victim; to collect and review the call detail records (CDRs) of relevant mobile phones used by the victim, the accused and others; to uncover the central mystery of the case; to arrest and identify other unnamed accused; to recover evidence; to gather information about the motive for the murder; and to establish the place where the murder took place.

At the hearing, the investigating officer, Firoz Uddin, said Tahsif and the accused, Deep, had consumed alcohol and cigarettes at a hotel. An audio recording had been found with Tahsif’s mother.

Further questioning was needed for a fair investigation and to identify the accused.

Arguing in favour of remand, state counsel Muhammad Shamsuddoha Suman told the hearing that the murder was planned. It was also necessary to establish whether any foreign intelligence agency was involved.

Meanwhile, at the start of the hearing the judge was angered to see journalists in the courtroom. He told the reporters who had gone to cover the case: “Why are journalists in the court? Are you allowed in here? After the hearing, the PP and APPs will brief you in detail. Get out. You cannot stay.”

The judge then told police: “Clear everyone out. No one is to stay inside.” The journalists then went and stood to one side at the back of the courtroom, after which the hearing began.

However, Shahjahan Saju, former general secretary of the Bangladesh Judicial Service Association and a former district judge, said this was not right.

“Since this is not an in-camera trial but an open trial, not only journalists but members of the public can also be present. Journalists are the mirror of the nation and play an important part in helping justice.

If they are present at an open trial, they can tell the nation what happened at the hearing. So it was not right to tell journalists to leave the courtroom,” he said.

Tahsif’s name first came up in discussion in 2024, during the student-people’s uprising, when he was serving as a flight lieutenant in the Air Force. His role in the release of the video that spread as then prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India was discussed at the time.

In August of that year, the 27-year-old lost his Air Force job. Although Tahsif believed he had had to leave because of that video, he denied any involvement in it.

He later worked for a time at Netra News and the Bangladesh Cricket Board. Most recently he was working as an administration and security officer at an organisation called Varg.

Tahsif’s body was recovered from the Turag river on 28 October, a day after he left home and went missing. After much discussion of his mysterious death, Enayetul Karim filed the murder case last Friday.

Deep was arrested in that case a day later. Disha was then arrested last Sunday.