Two decades after Shaheb Ali’s murder, Magura court sentences three people to death

Another 33 suspects were acquitted over the 2002 murder

A court has sentenced three people to death for the 2002 murder of Shaheb Ali, a resident of Kotbhag village in Magura’s Shalikha Upazila.

Judge Farzana Yasmin of the Magura Additional District and Sessions Judge’s Court delivered the verdict on Tuesday, handing capital punishment to Abdus Sobur, Habibur and Bulu Miah.

On Mar 8, 2002, Shaheb Ali left home to work his fields, according to Advocate Mashiur Rahman, additional public prosecutor for the district judge’s court.

When he reached the area in front of the Kotbhag Community Primary School, he was set upon by several men armed with sharp weapons, rods, and bamboo sticks over a prior feud and a power struggle in the village. They then beat and hacked him to death.

That same day, the victim’s father, Amzad Ali Biswas, filed a case against 36 people at the Shalikha Police Station.

Police conducted an investigation and issued a chargesheet against all of the suspects.

On Tuesday, Judge Yasmin ordered death sentences for Sobur, Habibur and Bulu, while acquitting the other suspects.