Four get death penalty for rape, murder of a child in Bogura

A Bogura tribunal has sentenced four people to death for the rape and murder of 7-year-old Mahi Umme Tabassum.

According to bdnews24.com, Judge Noor Mohammad Shahriar Kabir of the Bogura Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 delivered the verdict in the case on Sunday. Each of the convicts was also fined Tk 100,000.

The death row convicts are Bappi Ahmed, 24, Kamal Pasha, 37, Shamim Reza and Lavlu Sheikh, 23. All four were in court to hear the verdict.

Tabassum’s parents Belal Hossain Khokon and Marium Daisy are natives of Nasratpur Village in Dhanut Upazila, but worked in a garment factory in Dhaka. Their daughter stayed with her grandfather Abdus Sobur and studied in Grade II at the Panchthupi-Nasratpur Government Primary School.

On Dec 14, 2020, a two-day Islamic congregation started near Tabassum’s grandfather’s house. Tabassum accompanied her grandfather and aunt to the event. Around 10 am, she went to buy sweets from a store next to the stage.

Bappi, a college student working as a volunteer at the event, promised to buy her peanuts and took her to the local Hajji Kazem Zubeda Technical College where he and his friends raped the child. Bappi had a feud with Tabassum’s father.

Tabassum lost consciousness due to excessive blood loss and Bappi strangled her to death. The group then cut off one of the girl's fingers in an attempt to make it look as if she had been attacked and killed by an animal. They then dumped the body near the congregation stage.

Police recovered the body and sent it for an autopsy. On Dec 15, Tabassum’s father Khokon filed a case against unnamed suspects under the Women and Children Repression Act.

Police suspected Bappi’s involvement in the murder due to the family feud and kept him and his friends under surveillance. On Dec 25, they arrested Shamim Reza at his home. After he confessed, police arrested the others. All four of them confessed to the rape and murder of the child during their interrogation.

On Oct 25, 2021, Dhanut police finally submitted charges against the four suspects.

The four were found guilty and sentenced to death on Sunday.

Defence lawyer AD Jahangir Hossain said the decision would be challenged in a higher court.