4 get death for robbery-linked murder in Chattogram

A court has sentenced four people to death over the robbery-linked murder of a woman in Chattogram's Rowfabad in 2016.

Chattogram's Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge Shariful Alam Bhuiyan announced the verdict on Wednesday.

However, only one of the convicts, Md Yasin, was in court during the verdict, while the three others are absconding.

Additional Public Prosecutor Noman Chowdhury said the woman's husband had filed the case on charges of 'murder and robbery' against the convicts.

The court also has ordered the convicts to life imprisonment and fined them Tk 20,000 each for the robbery under Section 394 of the Penal Code, he added.

According to the case dossier, the victim, Pervin Akhter, was killed at Janaba Villa, a three-storey building at Bangladesh Cooperative Housing Society in Rowfabad, on Mar 5, 2016.

An unknown individual came to the door just as her son's private tutor was leaving the house. Later, three others forced their way into the house.

The assailants subsequently nabbed Pervin and her son Sayeed. They took the key to their almirah by threatening to strangle Sayeed to death and looted around 34 grams of jewellery, Tk 7,000 in cash and mobile phones.

As Pervin tried to scream for help, the robbers pinned her face down on the floor, leading to her death from suffocation.

Police filed the formal charges on Jun 13, 2016, leading to a court indictment on Mar 5, 2017.

The accused were arrested at different times between 2016 and 2017 before being granted bail by the High Court. Later, three of them absconded, said Noman.