A man who wanted to move the people found in deadly stillness
Body of 33-year-old millionaire tech entrepreneur Fahim Saleh was found decapitated and dismembered in his Manhattan apartment by his sister on Wednesday
Fahim Saleh wanted to move the people stuck forever and ever around the globe so that they can get together faster. Then he ended up cold and still in his Manhattan apartment, his body decapitated and dismembered, with an electric saw still buzzing.
"We have a torso, a head that's been removed, arms, and legs. Everything is still on the scene. We don't have a motive," said NYPD spokesman Sgt. Carlos Nieves, reports New York Daily News.
Detectives were waiting for fingerprint and forensics tests on the body, according to police sources.
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"We have never heard such shocking news," said Hussain Elius, chief executive officer of Pathao, which Saleh co-founded.
A visionary and go-getter, Saleh's body was discovered by his sister in the Manhattan apartment he bought last year for $2.25 million.
Worried that she hadn't seen her brother in a day, she went up to the seventh-floor condo only to get the shock of her life – her brother lying in pieces.
His sister then called 911 Tuesday, an NYPD spokesman said.
An elevator surveillance camera may have caught the victim's last moments, sources said. It shows the victim getting into the elevator Monday, followed quickly by a second man, dressed in a suit, wearing gloves, a hat and a mask over his face.
After the victim walked out onto his floor, he fell immediately, possibly shot or stunned.
"The perp had a suitcase. He was very professional," one police source said.
What could drive anyone to commit such a barbaric act is what has consumed the tech world and the Bangladeshis at home and in the US.
Saleh used to believe in ideas that can change lives in the developing world, Elius said.
True to his word, Saleh had initiated a host of start-ups in Bangladesh and Nigeria.
"In our country, people usually go abroad with or for fortune. He, on the other hand, looked back to the origin to contribute," added Elius, who also had worked together with Saleh in computer firm Hack House Dhaka in the mid-2010s.
Saleh began frequent visits to Bangladesh in 2015. Pathao received the earliest stage investment from him and proved the worth. Later in 2017, he withdrew the core angel investment from Pathao to pass the baton to the next level international investors.
Not only in Pathao, Saleh and his New York-based venture capital and private equity firm Adventure Capital has helped to build two other segment champion start-ups — Jatri and Jobike — in Bangladesh and the investments are still here to grow the firms. He also has some IT ventures in Bangladesh like gaming studio Alpha Potato.
"I have met the young gentlemen four years ago and saw a determination for positive changes," said Wali-Ul-Maroof Matin, managing director of Dhaka-based venture capital firm Maslin Capital, also a director at the Venture Capital and Private Equity Association of Bangladesh.
Saleh was the first believer in the vision of Jatri, the mobility start-up making bus travel in Bangladesh hassle-free, said Aziz Arman, its CEO.
"He continuously encouraged, guided and inspired us to go forward to build the best thing," he added.
Fahim, a CIS graduate from Bentley University at Massachusetts, used to invest his own money as the very early stage capital if someone came up with a good business idea, especially in the field of mobility, energy and technology.
Later, he also used to engage other investors through the venture capital firm to help to grow the start-ups.
To introduce itself Fahim Saleh's firm Adventure Capital says: "We invest at a very early stage, often bringing together founding teams."
Fahim and his alternative investment firm have successful footprints in other developing countries in different continents.
Like Gokada, Nigeria's Pathao that had to shut motorcycle ride-hailing service earlier this year due to government regulations there, but it is still in delivery and two-wheeler financing support businesses.
Start-ups are examples of how brilliant ideas and funding can help positive changes.
"We have seen how Pathao changed thousands of unemployed youth's life to a dignified direction in Bangladesh," said Wali-Ul-Maroof Matin, managing director of Dhaka-based venture capital firm Maslin Capital, also a director at the Venture Capital and Private Equity Association of Bangladesh.
"Killing a man with ideas and active supports to ideas is killing the potentials to have Facebooks, Ubers, Pathaos in dozens of new fields," said VIPB Asset Management's Chairman Dr Zia Uddin Ahmed.
Not all start-ups turn successful, nor should one conclude that an idea would fail for sure.
"I hope the New York Police will find out who killed the talent and punish the culprits," he told The Business Standard while talking from Washington DC on Wednesday .
"We are shocked and saddened to hear the reports of the death of Fahim Saleh, one of the founding members of the Pathao team," said Pathao CEO Hussain Elius.
"Fahim believed in the potential for technology to transform lives in Bangladesh and beyond. He saw the promise in us, when all we had was a common purpose and a shared vision. He was, and will forever remain, an incredible inspiration for Pathao and our entire ecosystem," he added.
