A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced a man to death for killing seven-year-old Sifat Ali Tonmoy after kidnapping him in 2012.
Judge Tanzina Ismail of Dhaka Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Tribunal 5 passed the verdict against Md Jahirul Islam, 30, in a packed courtroom where the convict was also present. The judge also fined Jahirul Tk1 lakh.
In her observation, the judge said Jahirul was a cold-blooded killer who carried out a killing for money. She also pointed out that the killer had put up a normal appearance in front of others following the murder of the child, even going as far as walking in front of the victim’s parents feigning ignorance.
The convict must receive capital punishment as no child was free from his heinous greed, the judge said.
According to the case statement, Jahirul was a tenant of the house of Hazrat Ali, the victim’s father.
On March 26, 2012, Jahirul abducted Tonmoy, a second-grader of Mirpur Model Academy, from the capital’s Mirpur area.
On the following day, the parents received a phone call from an unknown number with a woman on the other end demanding Tk8 lakh in ransom.
Tonmoy’s father immediately notified the Darussalam police, while the Detective Branch of police arrested Jahirul after a brief investigation. They found Tonmoy’s body at Jahirul’s room; the child had been strangled to death.
The same day, the victim’s father Hazrat Ali filed a case against Jahirul with Darussalam police station under the Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Act.
The investigation officer, DB Sub-Inspector Md Sheikh Moniruzzaman, pressed a charge sheet against the accused on November 15, 2012, and the court framed the charge on March 15, 2013.
After examining 15 out of 18 prosecution witnesses, the judge handed down the verdict.
