Court jails two suspects for life for killing trawler driver in Savar

The convicts rented the victim's trawler, took him south and killed him on the way before throwing his body into the water

A Dhaka court has sentenced two people to life imprisonment for the murder of a trawler driver at Savar's Aminbazar two decades ago.

Dhaka's Additional District and Sessions Judge Md Abdullah Al Masud announced the verdict on Sunday.

The convicts, Abdul Mannan and Chan Mia alias Maruf, have been fined Tk 10,000 each as well.

In default of payment of the fine, they will have to serve another six months of rigorous imprisonment.

State counsel Ziaul Haque said that Mannan, who was present during the ruling, was sent to jail.

After Maruf went into hiding, the court issued an arrest warrant and ordered that the sentence be executed upon his capture.

According to the case details, on the afternoon of Jul 26, 2005, Mortuza Ali, a trawler driver from Savar’s Aminbazar, went missing after leaving his house to buy diesel.

Later, on Jul 30, his injured body was recovered from the Shyamlasi Haor.

Mortuza's uncle Md Ibrahim filed a murder case with Savar Police over the incident.

Following a probe, the investigating officer Sub-inspector (SI) Md Abdus Sattar filed a chargesheet in the court on May 28, 2006.

Investigation found that the convicts rented Mortuza's trawler on the evening of the incident and took him south. On the way, they killed him and threw his body into the water

Later, the police arrested the suspects and recovered the trawler from them.

Accepting the chargesheet provided by the police, the court framed charges on Feb 28, 2007.

During the trial, the court heard the statements of a total of seven witnesses. Mannan defended himself and pleaded not guilty.

Maruf was unable to defend himself since he had been absconding.

On Sunday, after presenting the arguments in the case, the court found the two guilty.