Separate courts in Magura, Chuadanga, and Chittagong on Monday sentenced three men to death in three separate cases involving the rape and murder of two girls and the murder of a child following an attempted rape.
Magura
A district court sentenced a man to death for raping and killing a teenage girl in 2022.
Magura District and Sessions Judge Mizanur Rahman delivered the verdict against Hasan Sheikh, 28, son of Fazlu Sheikh of Srikol village in Sreepur upazila.
According to the prosecution, the girl, a class VI student, went missing after leaving her home on March 17, 2022. She was found dead near a bamboo grove along the Kumar River the same day.
The girl's father filed a case at Sreepur Police Station. Police arrested Hasan Sheikh from the village on March 19 that year.
Chuadanga
A tribunal sentenced the lone accused to death for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl in Jibannagar upazila in 2023.
Judge Md Moktagir Alam of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal delivered the verdict and fined the convict, Abul Hossain alias Fatik, 29, son of Abu Taher Molla of Bara Masjidpara in Goyeshpur village, Tk200,000. He was present in the dock for the judgment.
According to the prosecution, at around 11am on December 21, 2023, the 10-year-old daughter of van driver Iqbal Hossain, went to collect vegetables in a field with several other children. Abul Hossain lured her into a nearby maize field on the pretext of helping her, then asked the other children to wait.
When she did not return, the children informed their mother. Her family later found her body in the maize field with her throat slit.
The girl's father filed a murder case at Jibannagar Police Station against unidentified persons. Sub-Inspector Saiful Islam, the investigating officer, submitted a charge sheet on October 31, 2024, naming Abul Hossain as the lone accused.
During the trial, the accused gave a confessional statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before Chuadanga Senior Judicial Magistrate Md Touhidul Islam. DNA tests also confirmed his involvement.
Chittagong
A tribunal sentenced a man to death for killing a child in the port city in 2023 after an attempted rape.
Judge Saifur Rahman of the Chittagong Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 delivered the verdict. The convict is identified as Rubel, 35, a vegetable vendor of the Pahartali area.
According to the prosecution, the girl, a class IV student, went missing from on March 21, 2023. A general diary was lodged with Pahartali Police Station the same day, and an abduction case was filed on March 28.
Police arrested Rubel in connection with the case and, following interrogation, recovered the girl's body from a water body on March 29.
Rubel told interrogators he lured her to a house with the promise of a kitten. He then attempted to assault her and, when she raised an alarm, strangled her and dumped her body in a water body in the Alamtara Pukur Par area on the night of March 21.