Three get death for murder of schoolboy in Gaibandha

A Gaibandha court has handed down the death penalty to three people for the murder of a school student after his abduction in 2015.

District and Sessions Judge Dilip Kumar Bhowmik announced the verdict on Thursday.

The court also jailed eight other suspects in the case for five years in jail and imposed a Tk 100,000 fine on each of them with an additional six-month prison term in the event of a failure to pay it.

Ashiqur Rahman Shamya, 14, the son of local Awami League leader and the mayor of Gobindagang municipality Mayor Ataur Rahman Sarkar, was kidnapped on Sept 24, 2015. A day later, police recovered the ninth-grader’s body with his hands and feet tied up.

The three recipients of the capital punishment are Shahariar Sarkar Hridoy, Rakibul Hasan Sajib and Mahmudul Hasan Zakir, who all hail from Gobindaganj Upazila.   

All the convicts were present in court for the judgment.

Public Prosecutor Md Shafiqul Islam, citing the case dossier, said Shamya's was found in a septic tank at a community centre in Bardhankuthhi Bot Tola a day after he was kidnapped.

Shamya's father started a case with Gobindaganj Police Station against 11 people, including some of his classmates.

Police pressed formal charges in the case on Mar 11, 2016 and the court recorded the testimonies of 19 witnesses before reaching the verdict nearly four years after the start of trial proceedings in the case.