The Appellate Division has slapped a Tk 50,000 fine on each of the three convicts in the murder of Gopal Muhuri, the principal of Chattogram’s Nazirhat College, besides their prison time until death.
On Thursday, the virtual appellate bench led by Justice Muhammad Imman Ali amended the previous verdict announced on Tuesday and issued the fine.
Lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hossain represented the defendants, while Deputy Attorney General Amit Das Gupta was the state legal counsel.
After the court opened on Thursday, Justice Imman Ali said the previous verdict did not mention the fine and the court included the financial penalty citing Section 302 of CrPC.
The Appellate Division previously reduced the death sentences for the three convicts to prison time until death.
“The convicts are meant to serve jail term until their death. But the fine was not announced mistakenly. The Appellate Division amended its verdict and announced a fine of Tk 50,000 for each of the three convicts. They will have to serve one more year in prison if they fail to pay the fine,” Amit Das Gupta said.
Reporters asked the deputy attorney general on how a convict can serve one more year when they serve prison time until death. “This life term means to serve until death. Even if a convict is given a life term in jail, they will have to be fined according to Section 302. This is what the court did today,” he said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a verdict on the nearly 19-year-old case, commuting the death sentence for the convicts to prison time until death.
On Nov 16, 2001, Principal Muhuri, 60, was shot dead at his own home at Chattogram city’s Jamal Khan Road by Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir activists, five weeks after the four-party alliance came to power.
In July 2006, the trial court delivered death sentences to the convicts.
Source: bdnews24.com
