Dhaka court sentences 3 to life in prison over 2003 murder

The body of Suruj Mia was found dumped in a sack in a pond in Dhaka’s Badda area on Dec 6, 2003

A Dhaka court has sentenced three people to life in prison for the 2003 murder of a man in Dhaka’s Badda over a feud over a loan.

Judge Md Iqbal Hossain of the Dhaka Fifth Special Judge’s Court delivered the verdict in the case on Thursday.

The convicts were Anowar Hossain Anu from Badda’s Abdullahbag, Md Borhan Uddin aka Jinnatul Alam from Tentulia village in Shariatpur and Abdul Haque aka Abdullah from Sherpur’s Baldia Char.

Anu and Borhan were in court for the verdict and were sent to prison afterwards. Abdul is absconding.

In addition to the prison sentence, the court also fined each of them Tk 20,000. A failure to pay the fine will add another six months to their prison sentence.

According to the case document, police recovered the body of a man in his thirties stuffed in a sack in a pond next to the Sutibhula canal in Badda.

The body, which had been there for some time, had rotted. Locals were not able to identify the body or give any information related to the death.

SI Abu Bakr Matubbar filed a case against unnamed suspects at Badda Police Station after the body was recovered. At one point during the investigation a woman from Tangail identified the body as that of her husband Suruj Mia.

After police arrested Anu and Borhan, Borhan confessed to the crime under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Abdullah’s involvement was part of the confession.

Police then filed charges against the three, saying that they had killed Suruj over enmity over a loan and had dumped the body in the pond.

Court clerk Ariful Islam said that the verdict was delivered after the testimony of 14 witnesses was heard.

Additional Public Prosecutor Shawkat Alam represented the state.

Lawyer Muhammad Mahbubur Rahman Sujon, part of the defence team, said the verdict would be appealed.