Former Narayanganj City Corporation councillor Nur Hossain and three former senior officers of the local RAB unit, including its then chief are among the 26 people awarded the death penalty for the 2014 sensational seven-murder.
On Monday, Narayanganj’s District and Sessions Judge Syed Enayet Hossain delivered the verdict.
Nine others were given various terms in prison.
The abduction and gruesome killing of seven persons, including councilor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar, three years ago had shocked the whole nation.
The news hit headlines in the international media later, when it emerged members of elite police unit, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), were involved in the killings.
The court found all the 35 persons charged with the murders guilty.
On Monday, when the judge delivered the verdict in a packed courtroom when 23 of those, including prime suspect Nur Hossain were present.
The then chief of Narayanganj-based RAB 11, former army lieutenant colonel Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, former army major Arif Hossain and former navy lieutenant commander MM Rana were also on the docks.
The RAB had suspended them after the allegations surfaced.
Later, they had all been sacked from the army and navy after prima facie evidence of involvement with the murder of seven persons was found.
The 12 other convicts, of which eight belonged to the RAB, are absconding.
As soon as the news of the verdict broke out, supporters of the murdered councilor Nazrul and slain lawyer Chandan, who had gathered outside the court premises, started cheering.
The victims’ families said that they were satisfied with the verdict.
“But we want the verdict to be implemented as soon as possible and hope that the High Court will uphold it,” councilor Nazrul’s wife Selina Islam Beauty told reporters.
Murdered lawyer Chandan’s family agreed. “We want quick execution of the verdict,” daughter Sushmita Sarkar said.
Counsel Shakhawat Hossain, who represented Chandan’s family, also said he was happy with the verdict, but added, “It would have been better if all of the 35 defendants had been sentenced to death.”
Defence counsels, however, said they will challenge the verdict in the High Court. –bdnews24.com
