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Death penalty upheld for convict in mother-daughter killing


Published : 14 Sep 2021 06:58 PM | Updated : 15 Sep 2021 01:44 AM

The High Court has upheld the death sentence for man who murdered for a schoolgirl and her mother at their residence in Chattogram in 2014. The court, however, did not issue any order regarding the death penalty of another convict in the murder case.

The HC bench of Justice SM Emdadul Haque and Justice Bishmadev Chakraborty pronounced the verdict on Tuesday (September 14) after hearing the appeal of the two convicts and death reference in the case.

The death-row convict is Shahid of Chattogram, while another convict’s name is Abu Rayhan, who has already died.

Lawyer Shahidul Islam stood in the court for the convict, while Deputy Attorney General Harun Aur Rashid and Assistant Attorney General Zahid Ahmed Hiro represented the state.

Assistant Attorney General Zahid Ahmed Hero told media that the court has upheld the death penalty Shahid, while the court did not issue any order on Abu Raihan, another convict who was sentenced to death in the lower court, as he had already died.

On October 1 in 2015, a trial court awarded the death penalty to the two accused for hacking the teenager girl and her mother after entering their house.  

Judge Mahitul Haque Enam Chowdhury of the Speedy Trial Tribunal of Chattogram pronounced the verdict in the sensational case. The accused are- Abu Raihan, 27, son of Habildar Abul Bashar of Chattogram District Police, and Md Shahid. driver of a rest house in Khulshi area of the port city.

The death reference of the lower court came to the High Court for approval of the death sentence. The two convicts, however, filed jail appeal against the death sentence. Abu Raihan died after filing the jail appeal.

On March 24 in 2014, Saima Akter, 17, an SSC examinee, and her mother Rezia Khatun, 49, wife of Padma-Jamuna’s C&F agent Rezaul Karim of house no. 129 on road no. 16 at Agrabad CDA residential area, were hacked to death in their residence. After the incident, police recovered a blood-stained knife, jeans pants, a shirt, two bottles of petrol in a bag, seven mobile SIM cards, a tent and a towel from the house.

Rezaul Karim, husband of the slain Rezia Khatun, filed a case with the Double Mooring Police Station. The next day, detectives arrested Shahid from Khulshi in Chattogram and Raihan from a residential hotel in Fakirerpool of Dhaka.

Following the investigation, police filed the chargesheet on May 25 last year. The trial framed charge on July 8. The case was later transferred to a speedy trial tribunal.