Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Monday acquitted five people, who were sentenced to death by a trial court concerned in a case filed over gang raping a teenage girl in Purbadhala upazila of Netrakona district in 2002.
The HC Bench of Justice S M Emdadul Hoque and Justice Bhishmadev Chakrabortty delivered the verdict after holding hearing on the death references and appeal petitions filed by the accused. The acquitted persons are Shamim, Bikon, Tikon, Tapos and Rup Miah. All the accused are the residents of Purbadhala uapzila.
Advocate AKM Fazlul Haque Khan Farid, Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokan, Advocate Bazlul Kabir, Barrister Saqeb Mahbub and Advocate Saifur Rahman Rahi took part in the hearing on behalf of the accused, while Deputy Attorney general Md Mozammel Haque represented the state.
After the verdict, Advocate Fazlul Haque said that the High Court acquitted all the accused as the prosecution failed to prove the charge against them.
The plaintiff in the case could not show any signs of rape, added the lawyer citing from the medical report.
Upon hearing the case, judge of the Nari O Shishu Nirjaton Daman (Women and Children Repression Prevention) Tribunal in Netrakona handed down death to the five accused on Ferbury 25, 2015. The trial court also fined Tk 25000 each of the accused.
In the case statement it was mentioned that the five accused on July 20, 2002 stopped the rickshaw, by which the victim girl was on her way to the house of a relative with her mother, near Kumarkhali area in Purbadhala upazila by showing a knife and some other sharp weapons and took her into a nearby jungle and raped her. They again raped her after taking her in a building.
Meanwhile, when the police arrived after receiving the information, the accused had gone down to a pond with the girl, also read the case documents. Finally the perpetrators could get escaped from the scene.
The victim girl filed a case on the following day with the Purbadhala Police Station. At that time she was 15 years old.
Police submitted the charge sheet on November 8 on that year. After long 10 years, the court on October 9 in 2012 framed the charges against six accused including the five and on February 25 in 2015 the court delivered the verdict giving death sentence to five accused and acquitting one accused.
