Minister Qamrul assures prompt trial in Abdullah murder case

Food Minister Qamrul Islam has held out the assurance that the trial in the case over the murder of the schoolboy Md Abdullah in Dhaka’s Keraniganj will be completed in a few months.

The minister, who is the local MP for Keraniganj constituency, gave the assurance while talking to the parents and relatives of the boy at West Mugarchar village under Rohitpur union on Wednesday morning.

Police found the decomposed body of the 11-year-old fifth-grader in the house of his relative and neighbour Motahar Hossain at Mugarchar on Tuesday, four days after he was kidnapped.

Abdullah was the son of Md Badal Hossain, a Bangladeshi expatriate working in Saudi Arabia, and student of Mugarchar Govt Primary School.

Hossain is the maternal uncle of Abdullah’s mother and paternal uncle of his father.

Hossain’s son Md Mehedi Hassan, 20, daughter Mitu Akter, 20, and neighbours Md Al-Amin, 21, and Khorshed Ali, 32, have been arrested over the murder.

Minister Qamrul visited the boy’s family to console them.

He said, “The charge sheet in the case will be submitted in court in 15 days. The trial will begin in 3-4 months.”

“I will personally take care of the matter on behalf of the plaintiff and the locals so that the plaintiff is not harassed and the accused are given the highest punishment,” said the minister.

Abdullah’s grandfather Marfat Ali had filed a general diary with the Keraniganj police on Friday after the boy went missing. Police later recorded a case based on the diary.

Following the recovery of the body, locals formed human chains and staged agitation demanding the death penalty for the killers.

Marfat Ali said his family had paid Tk 200,000 as ransom to the boy’s kidnappers against the Tk 500,000 demanded by them.