Nrayanganj seven-murder: Full HC verdicts confirming death sentences of 15 released

The High Court has published the verdicts of two cases over the 2014 murders of seven people in Narayanganj confirming death sentences of 15 convicts.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 19 Nov 2018, 03:57 PM
Updated : 19 Nov 2018, 05:08 PM

The two cases consist of death references and appeals of the convicts.

High Court Special Officer Saifur Rahman told the media that the verdicts with 783 and 781 pages, respectively, were published on the Supreme Court’s website on Monday.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the convicts have the full right to challenge the High Court judgments at the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

The bench of Justice Bhabani Prasad Singh and Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam issued the verdict upholding various prison terms given to nine other convicts on Aug 22 last year.

It also reduced to life in prison death penalties awarded by the trial court to 11 other convicts, considering "the nature of their involvement in the murders".

"The public will lose trust in the judiciary if the convicts are let off despite the nature of their crimes," the court observed.

Dead bodies of seven people, including city councillor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar, had washed up on the bank of river Shitalakhhya at Bandar Upazila, three days after they were abducted from the city on Apr 27 of 2014.

The seven victims

The discovery sent shockwaves through the nation and made international headlines after police found several members of the Rapid Action Battalion or RAB involved in the murders.

The High Court has upheld death for three former senior officers of the local RAB-11 unit, including its then chief, former army lieutenant colonel Tarek Sayeed Mohammad. He is son-in-law to Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya.

The other two are former major Arif Hossain and former lieutenant commander Masud Rana.

They had carried out the murders after being paid to do so by former Narayanganj councillor Nur Hossain, whose death by hanging had also been confirmed by the court.

Nur Hossain

Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, Arif Hossain and Masud Rana

The killers' primary target was councillor Nazrul, a rival of Nur Hossain, but the other victims, who included Nazrul's associates, were abducted along with him while they were returning from court.

Lawyer Chandan Sarkar and his driver were abducted and killed for having witnessed the abduction of Nazrul and his associates at Fatulla's Lamparha on Dhaka-Narayanganj Link road.

On Jan 16, a Narayanganj court handed the death penalty to 26 and different prison terms to nine others in the case.

Of the 35 accused in the murder, 25 were law-enforcement personnel.

The High Court in its observation said, “RAB, an elite force, has been playing a pioneering role in maintaining law and order in the country.

“In the estimation of people the force is a symbol of security and trust. So, for the acts of a few aberrated RAB–personnel like those in this case, the glory and achievement of the force cannot be tarnished in any way.

“In the present case, the accused RAB personnel acted illegally with individual responsibility and upon personal interest. So the ‘RAB’, the elite force as a whole, did not commit the alleged offence, only some aberrated RAB Personnel i.e. the convicted-accused RAB-Personnel,” it added.