Justice elusive

One and a half years have passed since college student Sohagi Jahan Tonu was raped and killed inside Comilla cantonment, but the investigators are yet to arrest any of the killers.

“I don't know how long it will take… police are yet to arrest anyone,” Tonu's mother Anwara Begum vented her frustration to The Daily Star.

The mother, however, still clings to the hope that they will get justice for her daughter.

Tonu, a student of Comilla Victoria College and also a theatre activist, was found murdered inside the cantonment on March 20 last year.

Two autopsies could not determine the cause of her death though her father Yaar Hossain, who first spotted the body in a bush, saw the back of his daughter's head smashed and injury marks on her nose.

But the police inquest report did not cite any sign of injury.

However, the family members saw a ray of hope of getting justice as CID officials through DNA tests found that Tonu was raped before being murdered.

The officials on May 16 last year said the tests of the specimens collected from her clothes found spermatozoa of three males. But CID could not match the DNA samples with anyone so far.

“I've asked the investigation officer several times for updates, but he always says the investigation is going on,” said Anwara Begum. “But no one was arrested for interrogation,” she alleged. 

She appealed for a meeting with the prime minister in this regard.

Jalal Uddin Ahmed, assistant superintendent of CID and the case's investigating officer, told our Comilla correspondent, “The investigation is going on at its own pace. A five-member probe body is also working. On the base of the forensics reports, we are interrogating people.”

Meanwhile, today, local chapter of Gonojagoron Mancha is going to publish a journal protesting rape and faults in legal procedure of rape cases titled, “Dharshita” (raped woman) dedicated to Tonu, said its convener Khairul Anam Raihan.