RU Prof Taher murder Death sentence of 2 convicts upheld

Staff Reporter :
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed petitions seeking review of its earlier verdict that upheld the death sentence of two convicts, including a former teacher of Rajshahi University (RU), and life imprisonment of two others for killing RU Professor S Taher Ahmed in 2006.
An eight-member full bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique delivered the verdict.
The HC in its verdict on April 21, 2013, confirmed the death sentence of the then RU teacher Dr Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin and caretaker at Taher’s residence Jahangir Alam
for their involvement in the gruesome murder of Prof Taher.
The HC, however, commuted the death sentence of two other convicts to life term imprisonment. These two convicts are Jahangir Alam’s brother Abdus Salam and brother-in-law Nazmul.
On April 5 in 2022, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the HC verdict. Later two death convicts and lifetime convict Abdus Salam filed separate petitions seeking review of Appellate Division’s verdict.
Prof Taher disappeared on Feb 1, 2006. His body was recovered from a sewage tank near his residence on February 3. His son Sanjid Alvi filed a murder case with Motihar Police Station on the same day of that year.
A police investigation submitted a charge sheet accusing six suspects on March 18, 2007.
The six charged were Taher’s colleague Dr Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin, former RU Shibir President Mahbubul Alam Salehi, caretaker at Taher’s residence Jahangir Alam, Jahangir Alam’s brother Abdus Salam, Jahangir Alam’s father Ajumuddin Munshi and relative Nazmul.
Mohiuddin planned Taher’s murder because of a promotion issue in the department and arranged the killing, according to the police report.
On May 22, 2008, a Rajshahi court sentenced four of the accused, Mohiuddin, Jahangir, Salam and Nazmul, to death and acquitted Salehi and Ajumuddin.