A Dhaka court yesterday condemned a man to death for raping and murdering his sister-in-law nine years ago.
Md Alamgir Hossain, 27, brother-in-law of victim Munni Akhter, was also awarded a 14-year jail sentence and a fine of Tk1 lakh in another section.
Tanzina Ismail, judge of Dhaka Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Tribunal 5, said the convict would have to serve two more years in prison for failure to pay the fine.
The court also sentenced two of Alamgir’s friends – Md Ripon, 22, and Rahid Hasan alias Milon, 25 – to 14 years in jail in the case. Both are from Nawabganj upazila of Dhaka.
The two were fined Tk20,000 each and would be behind bars for one more year in the event of defaulting on the money.
All three had obtained bail in the case.
The tribunal sent Alamgir and Ripon, who were present in the courtroom, to jail after the pronouncement of the verdict.
But Rahid went into hiding after being bailed.
On July 14, 2006, the three convicts intercepted Munni, wife of Alamgir’s expatriate brother Shah Alam, in Joypara of Dohar when she was on her way to meet a doctor.
Alamgir and the two men kidnapped her, took her on a diesel-powered boat and raped her there, according to the case statement.
They then suffocated her using her scarf and also gashed her belly before dumping the body in the Ichhamati River.
Police recovered the decomposed body after four days.
On August 1 the same year, Kohinur Begum, the victim’s mother, lodged the case with Dohar police station under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.
Sub-Inspector of Dohar police station Shawkat Hossain, also the investigating officer of the case, submitted the charge sheet against the accused on October 3, 2006.
On July 13, 2008, the tribunal indicted the accused.
After examining testimonies of 21 prosecution witnesses out of 22, the judge handed down the verdict.
