Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Tuesday acquitted five death row convicts in a case filed for killing a school boy in Gazipur in 2001. It also acquitted two other accused who got life term imprisonment in the case. The High Court bench of Justice Mohammad Ullah and Justice Md Atoar Rahman delivered the verdict after hearing the appeal petitions filed by the accused.
The death convicts who have been acquitted are— Rafiqul Islam, Atiqul Islam, Selim Sheikh, Anwar Hossain Sheikh and Nayan Sheikh. Abdul Motaleb and Shamsuddin Ahmed have been acquitted from the life term imprisonment.
Earlier on August 9 in 2016, a Gazipur court sentenced six people to death and three others to life term imprisonment for killing the schoolboy in 2001.
The condemned convicts, Rafiqul Islam, Atiqul Islam, Atique Sheikh, Selim Sheikh, Anwar Hossain Sheikh and Nayan Sheikh of Ghagtia village in Kapasia upazila, were also fined Tk 5,000 each. The lifers were Anwara Begum, Abdul Motaleb and Samsuddin of the village.
Later they appealed to the High Court against the verdict. After hearing the appeal petitions, the High Court on Tuesday delivered the verdict.
Meanwhile, one death convict, Atique Sheikh, and one lifer, Anwara Begum, died in the jail while proceedings continuing in the High Court.
According to the prosecution, Sanaullah Sarkar, 19, an SSC examinee and son of Jashim Uddin of the village had developed a love affair with the daughter of Anwara Begum, and both families had been at loggerheads over the issue.
As a sequel to the enmity, the convicts strangled Sanaullah on February 9, 2001. Asaduzzaman, victim’s brother, filed a case against 12 people the following day.
Lawyers Abul Hossain, Golam Abbas Chowdhury Dulal, Aminul Islam and Moslem Uddin appeared in the court hearing on behalf of the accused, while Deputy Attorney General Dr Bashir Ullah represented the state.
The lawyers of the defendants’ said no eyewitness to the killing was found and the accused did not make any confessional statements. That is why the High Court acquitted all the accused from the charges. However, the state lawyer said they will file appeal against the verdict.
