Staff Reporter :
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Monday commuted punishment of a death row convict, Swapon Kumar Biswas of Kumarkhali in Kushtia district, to life imprisonment in a case filed over killing his first wife Swapna Ghosh in 2006.
A six-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by chief justice Syed Mahmud Hossain delivered the verdict after hearing an appeal filed by Swapon challenging the
High Court judgment that pronounced his death sentence in the case. The apex court also said that Swapon will get the benefit of section 35(A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure in calculation of his sentence.
In the judgment the court said, “The appeal is dismissed with modification of sentence. The sentence of death of the appellant is commuted to imprisonment for life and also to pay a fine of Tk 5000 in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 15 days more. He will get the benefit of section 35(A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure in calculation of his sentence.”
Following the apex court verdict, Swapon has to serve 22 years and six months in jail. But he has already been in jail for 16 years. Therefore, he will have to serve six and half years more in jail, said Mohammad Shishir Manir, a lawyer for Sawpon.
The jail authorities concerned will shift Swapon to a normal cell from the condemn cell of Kashimpur jail after receiving the SC order, the lawyer also said.
Lawyers Khandker Mahbub Hossain and Mohammad Shishir Manir appeared in the hearing on behalf of Swapon as pro bono (free of cost), while Additional Attorney General Sk Md Morshed represented the state.
Swapon has recently written a letter to senior SC lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain requesting him to provide free legal assistance to him. After receiving the letter Khandker Mahbub appeared in the court on behalf of Swapon as a pro bono lawyer.
After the judgment the Chief Justice yesterday also assigned Justice Muhammad Imman Ali to write full text of the judgment on Swapon and asked him to write one paragraph thanking Khandker Mahbub for providing free legal aid to a helpless person.
On April 9, 2014 the High Court upheld the Nilphamari District and Sessions Judge’s Court’s judgment that on November 18, 2008 sentenced Swapon to death finding him guilty for killing his first wife named Swpana Ghosh at his rented house in Syedpur under Niphamari district on October 16, 2006.
The court found that Swapon of village Nandalalpur of Kumarkhali in Kushtia tortured his 35-year old first wife to death and hanged the body with a ceiling fan to pass the incident off as suicide.
The trial court observed that the first wife was murdered over a conjugal conflict between the couple after she visited the rented house where Swapan staying with his second wife Sreemoti Alpona Roy.
