The Supreme Court upheld the life sentence for five people convicted in the murder of Nurul Islam Rifat, younger brother of AK Azad, chairman and chief executive officer of Ha-Meem Group and publisher of the Daily Samakal.
A three-member Appellate Division bench, led by Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, gave the verdict yesterday, sentencing the convicts Abu Raihan Rana, Sarfaraj Ahmed Curzon, Shamsu Habib Bidyut, Rasel Kabir Roman and Manik Ahmed Khan.
However, the bench acquitted one convict, Omar Faruk Rasel, who had been given life in prison in an earlier verdict.
Earlier, the High Court also acquitted another accused in the case, Tajuddin Ahmed Titu, who had been given life-time imprisonment by the trial court. Another accused in the murder case, Md Selim Khan, is still on the run.
Rifat, a student of Tejgaon College, was murdered on Jan 27, 1997. Police found his body on the railway tracks in the capital’s Mohakhali area.
One of his brothers, Md Ismail Hossain, filed a case with Cantonment police station in this regard, and police submitted the charge sheet on Jan 7, 1998 accusing eight people. The court frame the charges on May 7, 2000.
Seven years later, Dhaka Metropolitan Additional Sessions Judge’s Court gave life-time imprisonment to the eight on June 21, 2007.
At yesterday’s hearing, lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain represented Omar Faruk. Deputy Attorney General Md Selim argued for the state, while lawyer Abdul Matin Khasru stood for the petitioner.