A court yesterday sentenced to death six robbers and seven others to life on charges of killing a member of the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and two others of the Coast Guard in Bagerhat.
District and Sessions Judge SM Solaiman handed down the verdict.
The death row convicts are Rafiqul Sheikh, Kuddus Sheikh, Idris Sheikh, Babul Sheikh, Alkach Fakir and Ilias Sheikh.
They are from Khalkulia village of Morelganj upazila in the district.
The life terms were handed to Reazul Sheikh, Akram Sheikh, Alam Sheikh, Badsha Sheikh, Jamal Sheikh, Kamal Sheikh and Aslam Sheikh.
They are from Gabgasia village of Morelganj upazila in Bagerhat and Hogoldanga village in Khulna’s Batighata upazila.
The court also acquitted two others of the murder charge -Nanna Sheikh and Mizanur Rahman.
The case in details was that Rab and Coast Guard members began a joint raid in the Sundarbans on December 1, 2006.
During the raid, they came under attack by the convicts, when they reached the Pashur river at East Sundarbans’ Chandpai range.
All of a sudden, they pounced on the law enforcerment members and jumped into the river along with them.
The bodies of Rab 6’s PC Md Kanchan and Coast Guard’s members AH Kabir and MA Islam were later recovered in the river.
Rab 6’s then Deputy Assistant Director Md Mohsin Ali filed a case with Mongla police station on December 2.
Mongla police station’s then Sub-Inspector Md Nasir Uddin pressed charges against 15 robbers on May 8, 2007.