Police in New York have arrested a suspect in the gruesome murder of Pathao co-founder Fahim Saleh.
The personal assistant of the tech entrepreneur was arrested on Friday and is expected to be charged in the killing, the New York Times reported citing two officials briefed in the matter.
The 33-year-old’s decapitated, dismembered body was found on Tuesday in his condo at a luxury building on the Lower East Side.
The personal assistant, Tyrese Devon Haspil, 21, was expected to be charged in a criminal complaint with second degree murder and other crimes, says the New York Times.
Detectives believe that the motive for the killing stemmed from Fahim having discovered that the assistant had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from him, despite the fact that Saleh had not reported the man and had set up what amounted to be a repayment plan for him to return the money, the report said citing one of the officials.
Investigators have also concluded that Fahim was killed on Monday, the day before his body was found, and that the killer returned the next day to his apartment to dismember the body and clean up the crime scene.
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Fahim was discovered dead by his sister inside his apartment, police said. She had gone to check in on him after failing to get in touch with him for about a day.
Detectives suspect that the killer, dressed in a black suit, white shirt and tie, wearing a black mask and carrying a duffle bag, followed Fahim into the elevator and into his apartment, a law enforcement official told the New York Times before adding that he used a Taser to immobilize Fahim and then stabbed him to death.
Security video taken from inside the elevator showed the killer later using a portable vacuum cleaner in an apparent effort to remove any traces of his presence, the official said.
Investigators believe the killer’s work of dismembering the body was interrupted when Fahim’s sister buzzed from the building’s lobby, another official said, prompting him to flee through the apartment’s back door and into a stairwell before the sister arrived.
In a statement on Wednesday, Fahim’s family said the gruesome killing was so shocking it was unfathomable and that nothing would bring them peace until his killer was arrested.
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“Fahim is more than what you are reading. He is so much more. His brilliant and innovative mind took everyone who was a part of his world on a journey and he made sure never to leave anyone behind,” the family said.
Fahim was the co-founder of motorcycle ride-sharing and delivery service Pathao in Bangladesh. He was also the co-founder and CEO of Gokada, a motorcycle ride-sharing service based in Nigeria.
Gokada followed his success with Pathao in Bangladesh, which he founded with Hussain M Elius and Shifat Adnan in 2015, and was valued at over $100 million.
Fahim was also the founding partner in a Manhattan-based venture capital fund, Adventure Capital, that invested in similar transit start-ups in Colombia and Bangladesh.
