14 jailed for life in 7-year-old murder case

A Bhola court has sentenced 14 people to life imprisonment for killing one Abdur Rashid Mia in Bhola's Charfasson upazila in 2013.

Judge Md Nurul Islam of the Additional District and Sessions Court delivered the verdict in the case on Sunday, in presence of seven of the convicts.

Rest of the convicts are still on the run, police said.

The court also fined one of the convicts Tk100,000 and the other 13 Tk 50,000 each, confirmed state counsel Aminul Islam Sarman.

The 14 convicts are Abul Bashar, 54, Nur Hossain, 45, Abu Noman, 35, Shahabuddin, 45, Fazle Karim Munshi, 51, Kanchan Patwary, 60, Basu Majhi, 50, Sadek Majhi, 55, Siraj Hawladar, 45, Shamsuddin Hawladar, 50, Abdul Jalil, 50, Kanchan Mistri, 45, Abdul Huq, 50, and Alauddin, 45.

Moreover, four accused -- Yunus, Eshak, Abu Bakar and Iman Ali -- were acquitted by the court as the prosecution failed to prove their crime.

All of them hail from the Romaganj area of Lalmohan upazila and Charfasson’s Shahibhushan area.

According to case details, Abdur Rashid Mia was killed in front of his own house in Charfasson’s Osmanganj union on the evening of May 30 in 2013. He was beheaded.

Later, his brother Md Hanif filed the murder case at Charfasson police station, accusing 18 people of murder.

State counsel Aminul expressed satisfaction over Sunday’s verdict. On the other hand, the convicts’ family members said they would challenge the judgment in the High Court.