Report in The daily star, Aug 23, 2017
The High Court yesterday upheld the death penalty of 15, including three ex-Rab officials and expelled Awami League leader Nur Hossain, for their involvement in conspiracy, abduction and killing of seven Narayanganj men in 2014.
The court, however, commuted the capital punishment of 11 others to life imprisonment. It fined them Tk 20,000 each, in default of which they have to spend two more years in prison.
The HC bench of Justice Bhabani Prasad Singha and Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam also upheld the jail terms of nine others for various terms ranging from seven to 17 years.
Earlier in January, a Narayanganj Court sentenced 26 persons to death and nine others to imprisonment in the sensational murder case.
The HC verdict comes more than three years after the horrific murders, which shook the nation to its core and gave the elite crime buster Rab a bad name for the involvement of its members in such a grievous offence.
Except for Nur Hossain, sacked vice-president of Siddhirganj AL and also Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) councillor, all 14 other condemned persons are former Rab members.
They include the then commanding officer of Rab-11 in Narayanganj Lt Col Tareque Sayeed Mohammad and the then company commanders Maj Arif Hossain and Lt Commander Masud Rana of the battalion.
Seven people, including NCC panel mayor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Sarker, were abducted from the Dhaka-Narayanganj link road on April 27, 2014.
Later, their bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya river.
Following the killings, Tareque, Arif and Masud were withdrawn from Rab and forced into retirement from the defence services. Tareque is son-in-law of Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya.
In its judgment, the HC said it was a pre-planned killing and an outcome of a conspiracy financed by Nur Hossain. And the killing was carried out under the leadership of Tareque, Arif and Masud.
Talking to The Daily Star, Assistant Attorney General Bashir Ahmed said Nur Hossain was awarded death penalty for “masterminding” the abduction and killing, while 14 others got the capital punishment for their direct involvement in the offences. http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/narayanganj-7-murder-verdict-high-court-bangladesh-death-reference-appeal-death-15-life-term-11-1452607
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