A Comilla court has ordered the exhumation of Sohagi Jahan Tonu’s body, eight days after she was found murdered inside the cantonment area.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Joynab Begum issued the order yesterday after the investigation officer moved the court.
The court directed the district magistrate to appoint an executive magistrate to supervise the exhumation process.
Tonu, a second-year history student at the Comilla Victoria Government College, was found murdered near her residence inside the cantonment on March 20. Her father filed a case the following day without naming anyone.
The incident triggered protests around the country and raised questions about security in the cantonment area.
Kotwali Model police’s Sub-Inspector Saiful Islam first investigated the case but police detectives were given charge of further investigation on March 25. The army on last Friday said it would assist the investigation.
However, investigators are yet to make any headway.
Investigation officer OC AKM Monjur Alam moved the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court yesterday seeking an exhumation order, arguing it would help them collect DNA samples, perform a second post-mortem examination and help properly investigate the incident.
“The body may be exhumed in a day or two,” he told reporters.
Protests continue
Agitation continued across Comilla as no-one was arrested until yesterday. Victoria college students renamed their Shaheed Minar premises “Tonu Mancha” and demonstrated there. Former chief of the college’s theatre group Md Al-Amin said their protests would continue.
In Chuadanga, Prothom Alo Bondhusabha organised a human chain in front of the district’s central Shaheed Minar. Speakers demanded immediate arrest of the murderers.
Similar human chains were formed in Barisal and Thakurgaon demanding justice for Tonu.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Chhatra Union set a 48-hour deadline for the arrest of the killers.
GM Jilani, general secretary of the left-leaning student body, threatened to march towards the Prime Minister’s Office on March 31 if the government failed to act by then.
The student body said it would organise a cultural rally on Tuesday afternoon at Raju Bhaskarjya on the campus.