A Sylhet court has sentenced eight people to death and seven others to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of schoolboy Sumel Mia in Bishwanath in 2021.
The verdict was delivered on Wednesday afternoon by Judge Syeda Amina Farhin of Sylhet Additional District and Sessions Judge Court-3.
The accused who received the death penalty include – Saiful Alam, Nazrul, Sadrul, Siraj, Jamal, Shahin, Abdul Jalil, and Anwar.
Seven others were sentenced to life imprisonment, including Ilias, Abdun Nur, Joynal, Ashiq, Ashik, Askir, and Farid.
In addition, 17 other individuals were sentenced to two years in prison each. A total of 32 people were charged in the case, though one, Mamunur Rashid, remains at large.
According to the case documents, on May 1, 2021, when Saiful Alam, a UK expatriate, attempted to forcibly remove soil from a field owned by Nazir Uddin in Chaitannagar village. Nazir Uddin, his cousin Manik Mia, and his nephew Sumel Mia, a 10th-grade student, intervened to stop him.
During a heated argument, Sumel Mia was shot and killed by Saiful Alam. Both Sumel’s father and uncle were also injured in the incident.
Sumel’s uncle, Ibrahim Ali Sezil, filed a murder case, naming 27 individuals. Bishwanath Police Station’s then Officer-in-Charge (OC) Rama Prasad Chakraborty led the investigation, submitting a charge sheet with 32 accused. A total of 23 witnesses testified in the trial.
Saiful Alam, the prime accused, has been in jail for nearly four and a half years since his arrest.
