News Desk :
Five years have already elapsed but there is still no headway in solving the mystery behind the murder of Cumilla Victoria College student Sohagi Jahan Tonu.
The brutal murder of the college girl created a stir across the country. Even so, no one is arrested so far in the murder case.
Expressing frustration over the lack of initiatives by the investigation agency, the family has cast doubts of getting justice.
“I have lost my daughter who was brutally killed after rape. I could at least console myself if her killers are punished,” said Tonu’s mother Anwara Begum.
Yaar Hossain, father of Tonu, first spotted the body of her daughter in a bush on the night of March 20 in 2016. He filed a murder case with concerned police station the following day against unknown people.
He noticed that the back of Tonu’s head was smashed and there were injury marks on her nose. But the police inquest and the first autopsy reports did not mention about the preliminary evidence of the murder.
The first autopsy on Tonu’s body had found no evidence that she had been raped before being killed. It also failed to determine the cause of her death.
Following a court order, Tonu’s body was exhumed for a fresh autopsy. But it also could neither determine the cause of her death nor confirm if she was raped. However, the fresh autopsy found evidence of “intercourse” before death.
Tonu’s parents rejected both the autopsy reports, saying those were full of wrong information.
They also alleged that law enforcement officials were trying to cover up the murder and save the killers.
The Tonu murder case is now being investigated by the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) since the Police Headquarters transferred the case to the PBI, Dhaka from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on September 22 last year.
The CID handed case documents to the PBI investigation officer Inspector Mozibur Rahman on October 21 last year.
A PBI team visited Cumilla Cantonment on November 15 last year and talked with the victim’s parents, said PBI sources.
“We have been investigating the case. We are yet to make any progress,” PBI Chief and Deputy Inspector General Banaj Kumar Majumder told media.
The CID during its investigation for over four and a half years made progress in May 2017 when DNA tests detected spermatozoa of three males on Tonu’s clothes.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Jalal Uddin Ahmed, also the CID investigation officer, then said DNA sample matching was going on. The CID never revealed what they found in DNA cross matching.
The victim’s family saw a ray of hope for getting justice after CID officials through DNA tests confirmed that Tonu was raped before being murdered.
PBI Inspector Mozibur Rahman, investigation officer of the case, said they visited the place of occurrence and that they were looking into all relevant issues.
