The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday asked former Army officer Hafizur Rahman to surrender before the court within 24 hours in a case filed with the killing of Cumilla Victory College student Sohagi Jahan Tonu.

The Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division Justice Md Rezaul Haque passed the order after staying his bail granted by the High Court in the case.

The court also asked police to arrest him if he fails to appear before the court within 24 hours.

Earlier on August 2, the High Court granted anticipatory bail for six months to Hafizur in the case. Later, he was released from the jail on Tuesday upon bail.

The state filed a petition with the Appellate Division seeking a stay on the HC bail order.

On April 22, 2026, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) arrested Hafizur, former senior warrant officer of the Bangladesh Army, from Dhaka in connection with the murder case.

Tonu, a second-year student of the history department at Victoria College, went missing on March 20, 2016, after leaving for private tuition inside Cumilla Cantonment.

Her body was later recovered from a nearby forest area, prompting her father Yar Hossain to file a murder case at Cumilla Kotwali Model Police Station.

The case has since seen multiple changes of investigation agencies, moving from local police to the Detective Branch, then Criminal Investigation Department, and later to the PBI, but no breakthrough has been achieved so far.