A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced to death the caretaker of a city clinic for the killing of Dr Sajia Afrin Eva after attempted rape.
ABM Nazmul Haque, judge of Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 4, pronounced the verdict yesterday afternoon in the presence of the accused, Mohammad Faysal, 30, caretaker of Amtola Brac clinic.
After hearing the judgement, the convict burst into tears in the dock.
Terming the killing of the young doctor as “heinous”, the court said the accused should get the death penalty. Fifteen prosecution witnesses were examined during the trial.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune after the verdict, Sajia’s father, Monirul Islam, and other relatives said they got justice. They also appealed to the government to execute the judgement immediately.
On November 29, 2012, Dr Sajia, 28, was found dead inside her office room at the Amtoli Brac clinic in the capital’s Dakkhin Khan area. It was her first day at work and she was on night duty.
The next day, the victim’s father filed a case with Dakkhin Khan police station accusing three staff of the clinic, including Faysal.
Assistant police superintendent Shampa Rani Shaha submitted a charge-sheet against Faysal on January 20, 2013. The investigating officer, however, dropped the names of the other accused as the charges against them could not be proven.
Faysal went into hiding soon after the killing. He was eventually arrested from Brahmanbaria on December 2 last year.
On December 3, in a confessional statement before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Hasibul Haque, Faysal admitted that he entered the doctor’s room at 12:30am and strangled her to death after failing to rape her.
Dr Sajia graduated from Sylhet Osmani Medical College.