By Canadian Press

Person in custody in killing of tech CEO found dismembered

Jul 17, 2020 | 8:25 AM

NEW YORK — A person was taken into custody in the killing of a 33-year tech entrepreneur who was found dismembered inside his luxury Manhattan condo, a law enforcement official said Friday.

The person in custody had worked as Fahim Saleh’s personal assistant, the official told The Associated Press. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the case and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Saleh was found at around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday inside his luxury seventh floor apartment on the Lower East Side.

A relative called police after going to check on Saleh and making the gruesome discovery. Responding officers discovered a clothed torso, bags containing a head and arms and an electric saw in the living room, police had said.

Investigators had recovered security video showing Saleh exiting an elevator that leads directly into the full-floor, two-bedroom apartment earlier Tuesday afternoon, closely followed by a masked person dressed entirely in black according to another law enforcement official who was briefed on the case. It also shows a struggle between the two that ensued at the entrance to the apartment, said the official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

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Police believe that the relative may have interrupted the intruder before that person fled out a back exit.

The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide after an autopsy found the cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the body.

Saleh was the chief executive officer of a ride-hailing motorcycle startup called Gokada that began operating in Nigeria in 2018.

Saleh’s LinkedIn biography described him as a self-taught businessman who founded Gokada, building on his experience of first “seeing an opportunity in his parent’s native country of Bangladesh” and starting that country’s largest ride-sharing company. It said he also invested in a similar venture in Colombia.

Investigators had been exploring whether the killing could have been related to Saleh’s business dealings.

Apartments in the 10-story building where Saleh’s remains were found sell for more than $2 million. The building was completed in 2017 as part of a wave of gentrification in the neighbourhood.

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AP reporters Tom Hays contributed to this report from New York.

Michael R. Sisak, The Associated Press