Gulam Rabbani :
In the full text of a verdict the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has observed that for the appropriate deterrent punishment conforming to the gravity of the offence and consistent with the public abhorrence for the heinous offence committed by the convicts, it also needs to meet the society’s reasonable expectation from court.
It also observed that it is the legal obligation of the Court to award a punishment that is just and fair by administering justice tempered with such mercy not only as the criminal may justly deserve, it is but the right of the victim to have the assailant appropriately punished is protected.
Upholding the death sentence of two convicts, including a former teacher of Rajshahi University (RU), and life imprisonment of two others for killing RU Professor S Taher Ahmed in 2006, a six-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique delivered the verdict.
The short verdict was announced on April 5 in 2022 and the full verdict got released on the SC website on Thursday.
The HC in its verdict on April 21, 2013, confirmed the death sentence of the then RU teacher Dr Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin and caretaker of Taher’s residence Zahangir Alam for their involvement in the gruesome murder of Prof Taher.
The HC, however, commuted the death sentence of two other convicts to life term imprisonment. These two convicts are Zahangir Alam’s brother Abdus Salam and brother-in-law Nazmul.
In the full verdict the apex court also observed, “In view of the evidence we have no hesitation to hold that Dr Mohiuddin, a highly educated man and Associate Professor of Rajshahi University, only for the purpose of getting promotion as Professor annihilated Dr Taher from this world presuming that if Professor Taher lived, the chance of his getting promotion as Professor was zero.
We also have no hesitation to hold that appellant Zahangir Alam and petitioners Abdus Salam and Nazmul in order to get monetary benefits, services and computers accepted the proposal from Dr Mohiuddin to kill Professor Taher Ahmed and accordingly committed the offence of murder of Professor Taher Ahmed.”
Prof Taher disappeared on Feb 1, 2006. His body was recovered from a sewage line near his residence on February 3. His son Sanjid Alvi filed a murder case with Motihar Police Station on the same day of that year.
A police investigation submitted a charge sheet accusing six suspects on Mar 18, 2007.
Those who were charged were Taher’s colleague Dr Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin, former RU Shibir president Mahbubul Alam Salehi, caretaker of Taher’s residence Zahangir Alam, Zahangir Alam’s brother Abdus Salam, Zahangir Alam’s father Ajumuddin Munshi and relative Nazmul.
Mohiuddin planned Taher’s murder because of a promotion issue in the department and arranged the killing, according to the police report.
On May 22, 2008, a Rajshahi court sentenced four of the accused-Mohiuddin, Zahangir, Salam and Nazmul, to death and acquitted Salehi and Ajumuddin.
After hearing on the death references and appeal petitions filed by the accused, the High Court on April 21, 2013, upheld the death sentences for Mohiuddin and Zahangir, but commuted Salam and Nazmul’s sentences to life in prison.
The accused then appealed against the decision with the Appellate Division, while the state has filed a separate appeal seeking capital death penalty for all the convicts.
Nine years later, the apex court on February 22 this year started hearing the appeals filed by the convicts challenging the HC verdict on them in the case. It concluded the hearing on March 16 and delivered the verdict on April 5 in 2022.
