A Dhaka court has sentenced a man to death and four others to life term in jail in the case filed over the death of Taslima Begum Renu in a lynch-mob attack at Uttar Badda in the capital around five years back.
Judge of the Sixth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court of Dhaka Mohammad Morshed Alam pronounced the verdict in presence of the convicts at a packed courtroom on Wednesday.
The condemned convict is Ibrahim alias Hridoy Molla and the lifers included Riya Begum Moyna, Abul Kalam Azad and Kamal Hossain.
The judge also fined them Tk 1 lakh each, in default, one year more in jail.
Earlier, the court set September 30 to deliver the verdict but later the date was deferred to October 9 as the verdict wasn’t prepared.
Pronouncing the verdict, the judge said that the prosecution was able to prove the charges brought against five people beyond doubt and they were given the punishment.
The judge also acquitted eight people as the charges brought against them were not proven. They are- Mohin Uddin, Md Shahin, Bachchu Mia, Md Bappi, Murad Mia, Sohel Rana, Billal Mollah and Md Raju.
Earlier, the prosecution and the defence completed their arguments, and the court recorded statements of 19 prosecution witnesses, including the complainant of the case.
On April 1 in 2021, the same court framed charges against the accused in the case.
On July 20 in 2019, Renu, a 40-year-old single mother of four-and-a-half-year-old Tuba and Ta-seen al Mahir, a fifth-grader, had gone to Badda Uttar-Purba Primary School to inquire about admission in hopes of getting Tuba enrolled.
However, a mob beat her brutally to death in front of the school gate, suspecting her to be a child kidnapper. Videos taken on mobile phones and CCTV, which later went viral on social media, showed some young people kicking, striking, and trampling Taslima amid a gathering of several hundred people, most of whom were just silent spectators.
The killing, which touched off a firestorm of outrage across the country, took place at a time when incidents of mob attacks on people labelling them as ‘child kidnappers’ were on the rise
Following the incident, Syed Nasir Uddin Titu, nephew of the victim, filed the case against 400 to 500 unidentified attackers with Badda Police Station.
Later, Investigation Officer Abdul Haque, an inspector of detective branch (DB) of police, submitted two charge sheets -- one for 13 people who are adults and another for two juveniles -- in the murder case.
The trial against two minors is now pending with the Juvenile Court-7 of Dhaka.
