A court has sentenced one person to death and four others to life imprisonment for the 2019 lynching of Taslima Begum Renu, killed on suspicion of being a child abductor in Badda, Dhaka.
Judge Murshid Ahmed of the Dhaka Sixth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court delivered the verdict on Wednesday.
Ibrahim alias Hridoy Molla received the death sentence, while Ria Begum Moyna, Abul Kalam Azad, Kamal Hossain and Asadul Islam got life sentences.
The court also fined the convicted individuals Tk1 lakh each.
The judge acquitted eight defendants – Md Shahin, Bacchu Mia, Md Bappi, Murad Mia, Sohel Rana, Bellal Molla, Md Raju and Mohin Uddin – due to lack of evidence.
On July 20, 2019, Renu was brutally beaten by an angry mob in Uttar Badda after she was suspected of being a child abductor.
She was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
On the same day, Renu's nephew Nasir Uddin filed a murder case against 400-500 unidentified individuals with Badda police.
On September 10, 2020, the investigation officer, Inspector Abdul Haq of the Detective Branch (DB) of police, pressed charges against 15 people at the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate's Court.
On April 1, 2021, Judge Fatima Imroz Khonika of the Sixth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court framed charges against 13 of the accused.
Two individuals named in the police charge sheet, Jafar Hossain Patwary and Wasim Ahmed, who were underage at the time, are being tried separately in juvenile court.