A Dhaka court has fixed March 9 for delivering its verdict in a case filed over the rape and murder of seven-year-old schoolgirl Samia Afrin Saima in Dhaka’s Wari.
Judge Kazi Abdul Hannan of Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 1 set March 9 to deliver the verdict in the case after hearing both the defence and prosecution.
Defence counsel Md Nazrul Islam said: “The prosecution lawyers failed to prove the charges brought against the accused in the case, so he will be acquitted.”
Special Public Prosecutor Md Abdul Bari said during the argument, they have proved the charges against the accused and sought maximum punishment for him.
So far 14 out of 17 prosecution witnesses, including several eyewitnesses, have testified in the case.
On November 5, 2019, Detective branch (DB) of Police Inspector Md Arjun, the investigation officer in the case, submitted a charge sheet against the lone accused Harun-ur Rashid.
On January 2, 2020, the tribunal framed charges against the accused in the case.
Metropolitan Magistrate Sarafuzzaman Ansari recorded Harun’s statement after Detective Branch (DB) Inspector Arjun produced him in court.
The accused in his statement confessed to his crime and the court later sent him to jail.
Police on July 7, 2019, arrested Harun-or-Rashid, a relative of one of Saima’s neighbours, from his village home in Comilla.
Harun in his primary confession said he had lured the little girl to a vacant flat to show her the rooftop of the building. He raped her there and strangled her to death. He then dragged her lifeless body to the kitchen by wrapping a rope around her neck, throwing it under the sink.
On July 5 last year, Saima’s body was found in a vacant flat at the same apartment complex at Bongaon of Wari in Dhaka, where she had been living with her family.