Separate courts in Magura, Chuadanga and Chattogram on Monday sentenced three men to death in three separate cases involving the rape and murder of two girls and the murder of another child following an attempted rape.
In Magura, a district court sentenced a young man to death for raping and killing a teenage girl in 2022.
Magura District and Sessions Judge Mizanur Rahman delivered the verdict against Hasan Sheikh, 28, son of Fazlu Sheikh of Srikol village in Sreepur upazila.
According to the prosecution, Rajia Khatun, a Class VI student of a local school in Srikol village in Sreepur upazila of the district, went missing after leaving her home on March 17, 2022.
Later, she was found dead near a bamboo grove along the Kumar River on that same day.
Mikij Sheikh, the father of the girl, filed a case at Sreepur Police Station in this regard.
Later, police arrested Hasan Sheikh from the village on March 19 that year.
In Chuadanga, a tribunal sentenced the lone accused to death for the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl in Jibannagar upazila in 2023.
Judge Md Moktagir Alam of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal handed down the verdict.
The tribunal also fined the convict – Abul Hossain alias Fatik, 29, son of Abu Taher Molla of Bara Masjidpara in Goyeshpur village under Jibannagar upazila – Tk 2 lakh. He was present in the dock when the judgement was delivered.
According to the prosecution, around 11:00am on December 21, 2023, Mariam Khatun, the 10-year-old daughter of van driver Iqbal Hossain of Goalpara village in the upazila, went to collect vegetables in Harivanga field along with several other children.
At one stage, Abul Hossain allegedly lured Mariam into a nearby maize field on the pretext of helping her collect vegetables and asked the other children to wait.
When Mariam did not return for a long time, the children informed their mother of the matter. Her family later found her body in the maize field with her throat slit.
Following the incident, Mariam's father filed a murder case at Jibannagar Police Station against unidentified persons.
After the investigation, Sub-Inspector Saiful Islam – the investigation officer of the case– submitted a charge sheet on October 31, 2024, naming Abul Hossain as the lone accused.
During the trial, the accused gave a confessional statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before Chuadanga Senior Judicial Magistrate Md Touhidul Islam. DNA tests also confirmed his involvement in the crime.
In Chattogram, a tribunal sentenced a man to death for killing a child after failing to rape her in the port city in 2023.
Judge of the Chattogram Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 Saifur Rahman handed down the punishment.
The convict is identified as Rubel, 35, a vegetable vendor of the Pahartali area in the city.
According to the prosecution, Abida Sultana Ayoni, 10, a Class-IV student, went missing from Sagorika Bylane in the Pahartali area on March 21, 2023.
A general diary was lodged with Pahartali Police Station on the same day, and later, an abduction case was filed on March 28.
Police arrested Rubel in connection with the incident, and following interrogation, they recovered the body of the girl from a water body on March 29.
During interrogation, Rubel said he lured the girl into going to a house in the Kazir Dighi area with the promise of giving her a kitten.
Later, he tried to violate the girl, but as she raised hue and cry, he strangled her and dumped the body into a water body in the Alamtara Pukur Par on the night of March 21.