WARNING: This story contains graphic details. Please read at your own discretion.
Fahim Saleh, the tech entrepreneur behind bike-hailing apps Gokada and Pathao, has been found dead and dismembered at his luxury condo in New York City, according to multiple reports.
Pathao and Gokada confirmed his death in separate statements on Wednesday morning.
Saleh, 33, was found decapitated and dismembered inside a condo he owned in Manhattan on Tuesday, the NYPD told the New York Times and the New York Daily News. Authorities said they initially found the victim’s torso near an electric saw inside the apartment. They later found his limbs and several large garbage bags.
Saleh’s sister originally found the body inside his luxury condo, police said.
Saleh’s personal assistant, Tyrese Devon Haspil, 21, was arrested on Friday. He faces several charges including second degree murder, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the New York Times.
A medical examiner has not yet specified the cause of death, and investigators are still reviewing surveillance video of the incident.
The video appeared to show Saleh near the building’s elevator with a person in a black suit and mask, one official told the Times. The video purportedly shows the masked person following Saleh to his apartment and then getting into a physical altercation with him.
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ABC 7 has also reported the existence of the video, citing unnamed police sources.
Saleh was born in Saudi Arabia to a Bangladeshi family and moved around a lot before his parents brought him to New York, according to a 2016 profile about him. He learned to code at a young age and developed several apps, including a mischievous one called PrankDial.
As an adult, he launched Pathao and Gokada, a pair of motorcycle ride-sharing apps based in Bangladesh and Nigeria, respectively.
He described himself on LinkedIn as “an investor that finds things.”
“We are shocked and saddened to hear the reports of the death of Fahim Saleh, one of the founding members of the Pathao team,” Pathao wrote on Instagram.
“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.”
Gokada described Saleh as a “great leader, inspiration and positive light for all of us” in a tweet on Wednesday morning.
Saleh’s social media accounts were still visible on Wednesday afternoon. A post from December 2019 shows a photo of the condo building where police say he was killed.
“My home,” he wrote in the post.
Saleh’s condo is worth more than US$2 million, according to reports. It spans the entire seventh floor of the building and is primarily accessed through a key-encoded elevator, ABC 7 reports.
The investigation is ongoing.
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