A Sirajganj court sentenced two people to life term imprisonment for killing an orally challenged girl in Belkuchi upazila in the district in 2017.

It also fined the convicts Tk 20,000 each, in default of which they will have to serve one more year in jail.

Judge of Sirajganj district and session judge court Fazle Khoda Md Nazir delivered the verdict in presence of the accused.

The convicts were identified as Saddam Hossain, 33, paternal uncle of the victim, and Akbar Hossain, a former Union Parishad member and cohort of Saddam. They were residents of Bera Kharua village in the upazila.

Advocate Gazi Abdur Rahman, public prosecutor (PP) of the court, said that convict Saddam planned to kill his 11-year-old niece Chaina Khatun, the mute daughter of his elder brother Jahirul Promanik, to pass on the blame centring a land dispute onto his paternal cousins.

Accordingly, Saddam in collaboration with Akbar Ali strangled the girl to death and dumped the body in a pond on December 25, 2017.

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According to the case statement, the victim’s father, who was not aware of the plot hatched by his younger brother prior to its implementation, lodged a case naming his paternal cousins with the police station the following day.

Police arrested the duo and submitted a charge sheet against them before the court in connection with the murder, based on which after all due process, a verdict was reached followed by the sentencing today.