At the Prime Minister’s initiative, the deadlock in the Tanu murder case is being resolved

ফাইল ছবি

News Desk: Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Md. Asaduzzaman has said that, following the Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s initiative, the long-standing deadlock in the investigation of the widely discussed Tanu murder case has begun to ease after 10 years.
He added that the Prime Minister sent him a message on Eid day asking for detailed updates on the progress of the investigation. Accordingly, he later provided a full briefing.
The minister made these remarks on Saturday (April 2) at the BRAC Centre in Mohakhali, Dhaka, while responding to journalists after attending a consultation meeting as the chief guest. The meeting was organized by BRAC’s Social Empowerment and Legal Protection (SELP) program.
The Law Minister said that it is due to the Prime Minister’s initiative that the stagnation in the case has started to clear after such a long time. He also confirmed that one suspect has already been arrested.
He stated that all individuals involved in the case will gradually be brought under the law. Due to the Prime Minister’s special interest, a detailed discussion on the case took place on the first working day after Eid, and progress updates were shared comprehensively.
The minister further said that although the matter currently falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Law is also continuing its active involvement.
For context, on the evening of March 20, 2016, Sohagi Jahan Tanu, a history student of Comilla Victoria Government College, went to a residence inside the Comilla Cantonment to tutor but never returned home. After extensive searching, her body was later found in a jungle near the power house within the cantonment. The following day, her father, Yar Hossain, filed a murder case against unknown individuals at Kotwali Model Police Station in Comilla.
Initially, local police, the district Detective Branch (DB), and later the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) investigated the case for a long time but failed to uncover the mystery. Finally, on October 21, 2020, following instructions from Police Headquarters, the case file was handed over from CID to the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) headquarters in Dhaka.
Over the past four years, the case has been investigated by PBI Inspector Md. Mojibur Rahman. Most recently, since September 2024, Inspector Md. Tariqul Islam has taken charge as the sixth investigating officer.
According to sources related to the investigation, in May 2017, the CID team found the presence of semen from three males through DNA testing of samples collected from Tanu’s clothing. However, these were never cross-matched with any suspects.
On April 6, the PBI applied to the court to conduct DNA cross-matching of three suspects—retired army sergeant Zahid, senior warrant officer Hafizur Rahman, and soldier Shahinul Alam. After receiving court approval, PBI launched operations to arrest them. With the arrest of retired warrant officer Hafizur Rahman, DNA samples have been collected and cross-matched for the first time from a suspect. PBI stated that samples from the other two suspects will also be collected after their arrest.