A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced a man to death and awarded seven others to different jail terms in a case filed over the killing of schoolboy Mizanur Rahman Babu in Netrokona in 2011.
Mukhlesur Rahman of Noapara village under Kendua upazila in Netrokona was given the death penalty while the five sentenced to life imprisonment were Habibur Rahman Bakul, a teacher of Noapara High School, his brother Matiur Rahman, Ramin Mia, Mosharraf Hossain and Afzal Hossain.
The five were fined Tk20,000 each, and in default, would have to be behind bars for one more year. ABM Sajedur Rahman, judge of the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 3, pronounced the verdict in the presence of all the convicts.
The court also sentenced two youths - Lutfur Rahman Hridoy, 14, and Jahangir Alam Titu, 14 - to 10 years in jail.
The two should be kept in a juvenile correction facility until they reach 18, the judge said in the verdict.
According to the case statement, Mukhlesur, a maternal cousin of Sanju Rahman who is the father of the slain schoolboy Babu, Bakul and Matiur masterminded the killing of Babu in the wake of a dispute over the management committee of Noapara High School.
The convicts killed Babu, a seventh-grader at the school, by slitting his throat at Baura Haor on October 15, 2011, and Sanju filed a murder case with Kendua police station on the same day.
Sub-Inspector of Kendua police station and investigating officer of the case Abu Hanif submitted the charge sheet to the Netrokona District and Sessions Judge Court on November 30 that year. l