The High Court has upheld the death sentence of Kanti Marak for the rape and subsequent murder of Bithi Diwa, a child belonging to a small ethnic community in Sherpur in 2013.
On Wednesday the High Court bench comprising Justice Bhishmadev Chakrabortty and Justice KM Rasheduzzaman Raja delivered the verdict after accepting the death reference.
State-appointed lawyer Hafizur Rahman Khan represented the accused in court.
According to the case proceedings, Kanti Marak, a distant uncle of the victim, lured Bithi into a house while she was playing one afternoon. After raping the child, Kanti strangled her to death when she attempted to scream in pain.
A Sherpur court had previously sentenced Kanti to death in 2019.
The case was subsequently sent to the High Court as a death reference, while the accused also filed a jail appeal against the trial court’s decision.
