A court in Rangpur on Monday sentenced a man to death for the brutal murder of his pregnant partner and their unborn child in 2023.
Judge Fazle Khoda Md Nazir of the Senior District and Sessions Judge’s Court also fined the convict Tk20,000.
The convict, Masud Miah, is a resident of Monail village in Pirganj upazila of Rangpur.
The victim, 30-year-old Santana Begum, was a garment worker from Bogra. Masud was her co-worker at a Ha-Meem Group factory in Ashulia, Dhaka.
According to court proceedings, the two developed a romantic relationship while working together and later began living together in Dhaka as a married couple. When Santana became pregnant and pressured Masud to formally marry her, he avoided the issue and returned to his village home in Pirganj.
On July 12, 2023, Santana travelled to Pirganj and went to Masud’s house demanding marriage. Masud allegedly assured her that he would marry her and took her to his aunt’s house.
The following day, under the pretext of taking her to get married, Masud led Santana to an isolated sugarcane field, where he suffocated her to death after pinning her to the ground. He then repeatedly kicked her abdomen, causing the forced delivery of a stillborn baby girl, according to the prosecution.
Police recovered the semi-decomposed bodies of Santana and the fetus from a sugarcane field beside the Gazi Kha Pittirchara–Rajarampur road on July 13, 2023.
Sub-Inspector Nazrul Islam of Pirganj Police Station initially filed a murder case against unidentified persons.
Following an investigation, members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested Masud from Taraganj in Gazipur. He later gave a confessional statement in court.
