A court has sentenced the lone accused to death by hanging in a case over rape and murder of five-year-old child Asma Akter at Chatkhil in Noakhali district.
At the same time, the court fined the accused Tk 1 lakh.
After a four-year long judicial process, the family of the victimised child has finally received the judgement.
On Monday (July 6) morning, Judge Farzana Akter of the Child Violence Suppression Tribunal of the Noakhali Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, pronounced the verdict sentencing accused Shahadat Hossain to death by hanging. .
The plaintiff's lawyer Advocate Shukla Saha Roy confirmed the matter, saying that July 6 was fixed as the final date for delivering the verdict after deferring the date three times earlier.
According to court and case records, deceased Asma Akter was the daughter of Maulana Md Shahjahan, an inhabitant of Mridha Bari in village Megha under Badalkote union of Chatkhil upazila. The lone convict Shahadat Hossain is the son of Babul Hossain from the same village and a cousin of the deceased child.
On March 24, 2022, five-year-old Asma suddenly went missing from her home at village Megha. After information extracted from her cousin Shahadat, police recovered her partially decomposed body from a septic tank 9 days later. Then, the 26-year-old Shahadat was formally arrested.
During the investigation, accused Shahadat gave confessional statement to the court admitting about the assault and subsequent killing of Asma. The statement indicated that the motive for the killing was to prevent the initial crime from being discovered. He further admitted to hide the body in the septic tank behind the house.
As the news of the brutal murder had spread, it sparked widespread outrage across Noakhali at that time. Demanding a speedy trial for Asma's murder and the death penalty for the accused, various social, political, and cultural organisations, along with local educational institutions, organised continuous human chains, protest rallies, and demonstrations.
END/COURT CORRESPONDENT/ASA
