Chittagong Bureau :
A court in Chittagong on Monday convicted life-term imprisonment to seven accused for gang-raping a young woman in Chandanaish Upazila of the district in 1997.
Judge of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-1 Mohammad Rezaul Karim delivered the judgment convicting Abdul Malek, Bodor Rahman, Delowar Hossain, Moktar Hossain, Kamal Uddin, Reazur Rahman and Shamsuddin, court sources said.
The prosecution story is, in brief, that eight people including the convicts forcefully took the victim to a crops field in Khagria area under Chandanaish upazila of the district and gang-raped her in front of her mother and younger sister on the night of December 22 in 1997.
Later, the victim filed a case with Chandanaish thana in this connection on December 24, accusing eight unidentified people.
Police submitted charge-sheet on June 16, 1998 while the court framed charges against the eight people on October 18 in the same year.
However, one of the eight charge-sheeted accused, named Akter Hossain, died on the midway of the trial process.
The court after examining 10 out of 15 prosecution witnesses awarded the judgment convicting the seven. Among the convicts Bodor, Delowar, Kamal and Reazur are in the jail while the rest three have been absconding, the court sources said.
