Narayanganj seven-murder: Victims’ families want capital punishment

The families of the victims in the 2014 Narayanganj multiple murders expect capital punishment for the perpetrators.

The court of Narayanganj District Sessions Judge Syed Enayet Hossain, which concluded the trial in November last year, is expected to deliver the verdict on Monday.

On the afternoon of Apr 27, 2014, City Councillor Nazrul Islam and five of his associates were abducted from their car on Dhaka-Narayanganj Link Road.

Around the same time and from the same location, senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar and his driver, who were in another car, were kidnapped.

Three days later, their bloated bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya River.

On the day before the verdict, Selina Islam Beauty, the wife of the slain councillor, told bdnews24.com she hoped for an exemplary verdict.

“If the punishment makes an example of them, no one will dare commit such heinous murders again,” Beauty said. “No other wife will lose her husband, no child will lose their father, and no mother will lose her son.”

Selina Islam Beauty

The bereaved Beauty also asked for the speedy arrest of the killers, some of  whom are still at large.

From the very beginning, the slain councillor’s family claimed that another councillor Nur Hossain had paid Tk 60 million to senior officers of the local RAB unit to carry out the murders.

Both Islam and Nur Hossain belonged to the ruling Awami League.

After the bodies were found, Beauty started a case with the local police, accusing five persons of kidnapping and murder.

A few weeks later, Sarkar's son-in-law Bijoy Kumar Paul filed a similar case.

Both of the cases have been tried simultaneously by the Narayanganj court.

“We have lost our loved ones,” Bijoy said while speaking to bdnews24.com. “All the murderers should be punished. Let those involved in these murders be given the maximum punishment.”

Bijoy said his father-in-law was ‘widely known’ as a ‘good citizen’.

“As far as we know, he tried to stop the incident unfolding in front of him. He was killed for doing so.

“The court should establish a precedent with this verdict, so that no one could ever think of committing such murders again.”

The slain councillor's wife says her family has been threatened many times over the cases.

“We have received death threats in the mail,” she said. “We still do not feel safe.”

Nur Hossain

After the investigation, which took almost a year, police pressed charges against Nur Hossain, three senior officers of the Narayanganj-based RAB battalion and 31 others.

Nur Hossain had fled immediately after the killings, but was detained in India’s Kolkata and brought back to Bangladesh 17 months later.

Twenty three suspects including senior RAB officers – Tarek Sayeed Mohamad, Arif Hossain and MM Rana -- are now in police custody.

Out of the 12 absconding, eight were members of the Narayanganj-based RAB 11.

Tarek, a former Bangladesh Army Lieutenant Colonel, is the son-in-law of Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya. He was the chief of RAB 11, when the murders took place.