Rashedul Islam Raju, who was sentenced to death in absentia for the killing of Jahangirnagar University student Zubair Ahmed, has been sent to jail upon surrender.
Raju surrendered before the Speedy Trial Tribunal 4 through his lawyers around noon on Monday. Later Judge ABM Nizamul Haque sent him to jail, acting special public prosecutor of the tribunal Taslima Yasmin Dipa told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
The tribunal on February 8 sentenced five activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League’s JU unit including Raju to death, awarded six others life-term imprisonment for the murder and acquitted two others. Of the 11 convicts, five others are still on the run.
Raju was also expelled from the university for life. Being on bail, he remained absent from court appearance since January 23 last year. Later the tribunal cancelled his bail for threatening Zubair’s friends on the court premises. Raju was also named by two convicts in their confessional statements.
Honours final year student Zubair was beaten and stabbed indiscriminately on the campus by the convicts and their aides on January 8, 2012. He succumbed to his injuries the following day at a hospital.
According to the case, Raju and another death row convict Khandaker Ashikul Islam took Zubair to a place behind the science workshop when the victim came out of the exam hall. After torturing him, Raju and another took Zubair to Enam Medical College Hospital at Savar and fled the scene.
