Tahsif’s friend Dip arrested after father files murder case

Police have arrested Ahmed Shahriar Reza Dip, a junior friend of former Air Force flight lieutenant Tahsif Souri, in the murder case filed by Tahsif’s father over his death. Police said they will apply to take him on a seven-day remand for questioning.

On Saturday (October 31), the duty officer at the River Police’s Turag outpost, ASI Mostafiz, said Dip had been arrested in the murder case filed at Uttarkhan police station. Preparations are under way to send him to court, where a seven-day remand will be sought.

Earlier on Saturday morning, Tahsif’s father, K M Enayetul Karim, filed the murder case at Uttarkhan police station against unidentified persons. The station’s officer-in-charge (OC), Md. Habib, confirmed the case and said Tahsif’s father had filed it as the plaintiff.

Tahsif went missing on the evening of October 27 after leaving his home in Sector 18, Uttara, in the capital. Family members claim he left the house in response to a call from his junior friend Dip. At around 6:30pm that day, CCTV footage in front of a garage at the RAJUK Uttara Apartment Project showed the two together. They later left on two separate motorcycles.

Dip had told the family that Tahsif’s motorcycle developed a problem, so they went to a workshop. After the motorcycle was repaired, they ate together and he left. However, their movements and communications that night later came under investigation.

On the afternoon of October 28, at around 4:30pm, members of the Tongi River Police outpost recovered Tahsif’s body from the Rajabari Ghat area after receiving word that a body was floating in the Turag River. He was identified through his wristwatch and the iPhone in his pocket. On October 29, after a post-mortem examination at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, a funeral prayer was held at the Central Jame Mosque in Sector 18, Uttara. He was then buried at the Sector 12 graveyard.

In connection with the incident, law enforcers took Dip into custody on the night of October 29 from a house on Babar Road in Mohammadpur. The next day, Friday, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) took him to the Mazar Bosti area beside the Turag in Tongi. Based on information he provided, a black Suzuki Gixxer 150 motorcycle without a number plate was recovered from there.

During PBI questioning, Dip claimed that on the night of the incident he and Tahsif had gone to the area near the Turag. There, several people chased them and Tahsif jumped into the river. However, the veracity of his statement could not be independently confirmed. After the information from questioning and the evidence at the scene were checked, Dip was handed over to the River Police.

Tahsif’s father had suspected from the start that his son’s death was a killing. He claims his son knew how to swim and has questioned the account that he died after jumping into the river. Police hope the investigation will bring out information about the actual cause of Tahsif’s death and the people involved.