A Dhaka court has sentenced four people to life term imprisonment in the case filed over the killing of university student Wahiduzzaman in 2013.
Judge Md Monir Kamal of Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-3 handed down the verdict on Wednesday after examining the records, and hearing testimonies of 22 out of 42 prosecution witnesses in the sensational murder case.
The convicts are-- Lelin Bapari and Rezaul Bapari of Dhusha village in Kalkini upazila, Shahbuddin Dorji of Kukuril village, and MM Faisal Ahmed of Thantoli village.
Of them, Rezaul Bapari was tried in absentia while the rest of the accused appeared before the court during pronouncement of the verdict.
The court also fined the convicts the Tk20,000 each, in default, two months more jail term will be added.
However, the court acquitted Mohiuddin Dorji as the allegations brought against him were not proven.
Md Wahiduzzaman was a masters student at Government Nazimuddin College in Madaripur, and a part-time employee of The Hunger Project, an international volunteer organization.
According to the case details, Wahiduzzaman, son of Mozammel Hossain of Singair upazila, gave Tk10 lakh to Rezaul to send him to Italy. But Wahiduzzaman could not go abroad, and asked the convict to give back his money which then lead to an altercation.
Mohiuddin and Rezaul planned to kill the student, instead of giving back his money. According to their plan, Shahbuddin, Lelin, and Selim asked Wahiduzzaman to come to Savar to take the money from them on March 6, 2013.
When Wahiduzzaman reached Savar, the convicts took him to a maize field, and strangled him to death.
Lelin, Shahbuddin, Selim, and Faisal were directly involved in this murder, according to the charge sheet.
Selim died during the trial proceedings.
Sub-Inspector Md Abdus Salam of Singair police station filed a murder case over the killing of Wahiduzzaman.
Later, Police arrested Lelin, Shahbuddin, and Selim. Selim gave confessional statement under section 164 before the court.
Later, Inspector Madon Mohon Bonik of Manikganj Detective Branch (DB) of Police, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge-sheet against the convicts on November 22, 2014.
On November 27, 2016, the court framed charges against the accused.
