Tonu Rape, Murder 4th death anniversary passes silently with no headway in probe

The fourth death anniversary of Cumilla Victoria College student and cultural activist Shohagi Jahan Tonu passed off silently on Friday as there is no headway in the investigation.

The victim’s family said that they were still in dark about the progress of the investigation and questioned whether they would be able to get justice in the rape and murder of Tonu.

Tonu, a 2nd year honours student of history and also a member of Victoria College theatre troupe, was found murdered inside the protected Mainamati Cantonment in Cumilla on March 20, 2016.

In the afternoon of that day, Tonu left her Alipur staff quarter residence inside the cantonment to provide tutorials to her students residing at the same area. At about 11:30pmon the day, her body was found in a bush in the cantonment.

A day after the murder, Tonu’s father Yaar Hossain, a civil staff of the cantonment, filed a case with the Cumilla Kotwali police station against unidentified people.

Murder incident in such a protected area shook the nation and sparked off protests across the country. People from all walks of life, especially rights campaigners and students, sought justice for Tonu.

Unlike previous years, no organisation took any programme to mark the death anniversary and Tonu’s family arranged a prayer session at the mosque of Mainamati Cantonment where the family live.

Tonu’s mother Anwara Begum said that she wanted to see justice in the murder of her daughter in her life time.

Anwara, now in her sixties, said that they found no visible development of the trial process as police was yet to submit charge sheet in the murder case although four years have elapsed.

She said that they could not contact the investigators in past one year.

The poor mother wanted to meet the prime minister and said that if the prime minister wished, the mystery behind the murder would be unearthed easily.

Cumilla Ganajagaran Mancha spokesperson Khairul Alam Raihan said that they had a plan to hold human chain to protest police’s failure in submitting the charge sheet into the murder case.

He said that they scrapped their plan due to the present coronavirus situation.

Terming the case as sensational, investigators told New Age that they would take more time to solve it.

Not a single suspect could be arrested by the police either. Until now, they said, they found no eyewitness of the crime.

Investigation officer of the case and special additional superintendent of police Jalal Uddin of Criminal Investigation department told New Age that their probes were still on.

He said that they were yet to get DNA test reports for matching in order to identify the perpetrators. ‘These are time consuming,’ he said.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net