Why Rakib murderers got reduced sentences

The two men found guilty of murdering a 12-year-old boy after “playing a fatal prank” on him had their death sentences reduced to life imprisonment because the court found they did not intend to commit murder and had tried to save their victim, the full text of the commuted verdict has revealed. Md Sharif and Md Mintu Khan were sentenced to death by a Khulna court in November 2015 for killing their young employee Rakib by pushing high pressure air into his rectum on August 3, 2015. The High Court reduced that sentence to life imprisonment last month. The full text of the verdict on the death reference, criminal appeals and jail appeals of the convicts was posted on the Supreme Court’s website on Wednesday above the signatures of two conducting judges - Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Md Jahangir Hossain. In the disturbing case which made national headlines, Sharif and Mintu stripped Rakib naked and inserted a high-pressure air pump nozzle into his rectum, which filled his abdomen with air. The court in its verdict said that the accused persons had taken Rakib to hospital soon after the incident. They did not flee the scene but tried to save his life instead. “In such a situation, it is a very hard job for the court to determine the quantum of sentence whether it will be capital punishment or imprisonment for life upon the accused persons,” the court said. Neither of the accused have any significant history of prior criminal activities and have no prior conviction or police record. “Therefore, we do find an extraneous ground to commute the sentences but we do not find any reason to interfere with conviction,” the verdict read. The two convicts in their confessional statements claimed that the incident in which they inserted the nozzle of a tire inflator into the boy’s rectum was a prank. They said they took Rakib to Good Health Clinic, where there were no doctors, then Sadar Hospital, then to Surgical Clinic and finally to the 250-bed Hospital. They also claimed to have arranged for two bags of blood for his treatment. Locals including Rakib’s family came to the 250-bed Hospital. Then they took the two back to their neighbourhood and beat them up. The court looked at statements of witnesses and determined that many of the accounts corroborated what Sharif and Mintu had said. The court concluded that justice would be done if the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment instead of death sentence.