The High Court on Thursday upheld the death sentences of five convicts in the 2015 murder of a female bank officer and her father in Khulna’s Labanchara, while commuting their death sentences in the related rape case to life imprisonment.
A bench comprising Justice Bhishmadeb Chakrabortty and Justice KM Rasheduzzaman Raja delivered the verdict.
The court accepted the death reference and upheld the capital punishment in the murder case.
However, it declined to uphold the death sentence in the rape case and sentenced the convicts to life imprisonment.
Advocate SM Shahjahan represented the convicts, while Mohammad Tajul Islam appeared for the complainant, assisted by advocates Al Asafur Ali Raza, Md Nazim Uddin and Md Mahmudul Alam. Deputy Attorney General Imam Hossain Tarek represented the state.
According to the case records, Ilias Chowdhury and his daughter Parveen Sultana, a bank officer, were murdered at their residence in the Buro Maulvir Dargah Para area of Labanchara on 18 September, 2015. After the killings, the assailants dumped their bodies in a septic tank before fleeing the scene.
The Parveen Sultana’s brother Rezaul Alam Chowdhury Biplob later filed a murder case with Labanchara Police Station.
During the investigation, police arrested one of the accused Md Liton who gave a confessional statement before a magistrate.
According to his confession, the accused raped Parveen before strangling her to death.
Based on the confession, investigators filed a separate case on 22 September, 2015, under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, over the rape and murder.
Both cases were tried by the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-3 in Khulna.
In 2019, after recording witness testimonies, hearing cross-examinations and arguments, the tribunal sentenced Md Liton, Saiful Islam Pitil, Abu Sayeed, Azizur Rahman alias Palash and Shariful Alam to death and fined each Tk100,000 in the rape and murder case.
The death reference was subsequently sent to the High Court for confirmation, while the convicts also filed appeals challenging the trial court’s verdict.
In Thursday’s judgment, the High Court confirmed the death penalty in the double murder case but commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment in the rape case.
