Staff Reporter :
The High Court (HC) on Wednesday upheld the life imprisonment of five convicts and acquitted four others in journalist Gautam Das murder case.
The High Court bench of Justice A K M Abdul Hakim and Justice Fatema Najib delivered the verdict after hearing appeals filed by the convicts challenging a lower court verdict.
The five convicts whose life imprisonment was upheld are- Asif Imran, Siddqur Rahman Miah, Asad Bin Kadir, Abu Taher Mohammad Mortuza Ahsan alias Apollo Biswas and Tamzid Hossain Babu.
The four acquitted are Asif Imtiaz Bulu, Kamrul Islam Apon, Rajib Hassan Miah and Kazi Murad.
The High Court on January 9 fixed January 30 for delivering the judgement after hearing appeals filed by the convicts.
Gautam Das, 30, was the Faridpur Bureau Chief of Bengali daily Samakal. He was killed in his office on November 17, 2005.
According to the case statement, Gautam ran a series of news reports in Samakal against the accused. The reports were based on allegations of their involvement in corruption and irregularities in repairing Mujib Sarak of Faridpur.
On June 27, 2013, a Dhaka court sentenced the nine people to life imprisonment for killing the journalist.
The convicts then filed separate appeals with the HC challenging the trial court verdict.
