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The Rajshahi Central Jail authorities have hanged two death row convicts in the 2006 murder of Professor S Taher Ahmed, a teacher of Rajshahi University’s geology and mining department.
The convicts are Miah Mohammad Mohiuddin, a colleague of Prof Taher, and Jahangir Alam, the caretaker of the teacher’s house.
They were executed at 10:01pm on Thursday, said Inspector General of Prisons Brig Gen ASM Anisul Haque.
Mohiuddin plotted the murder of Prof Taher while Jahangir and two others executed Mohiuddin’s plan for money, according to police investigation.
Prof Taher’s family said they were happy at the hanging of the two convicts, reports bdnews24.com.
“Truth has triumphed,” said lawyer Shegufta Tabassum Ahmed, daughter of Prof Taher. “My brother and I did not have someone to call father for 17 long years. The pain was unbearable.”
Prof Taher disappeared on Feb 1, 2006. At the time Taher’s children were living in Dhaka’s Uttara for their studies and their mother had gone to visit them, leaving the professor home alone.
His body was recovered from a sewage line near his residence two days later. Taher’s son Sanjid Alvi Ahmed filed a murder case with Motihar Police Station on Feb 3 of that year.
Police pressed charges against six suspects on Mar 18, 2007.
They were Mohiuddin, a former student of Taher who later became a colleague, former RU Shibir president Mahbubul Alam Salehi and Alam's father Ajumuddin Munshi, caretaker Jahangir Alam, Alam's brother former Chhatra Shibir activist Abdus Salam and Salam's relative Nazmul.
During the trial, Jahangir, Nazmul and Salam testified that Mohiuddin had persuaded them to kill Taher with promises of money, computers and university jobs. Mohiuddin denied the allegations.
The police investigation found that Mohiuddin had applied for a promotion at the university. Taher was part of the committee that scrutinised his application. Taher pointed out some of Mohiuddin’s deceptions to the panel and the allegations were later proven in an investigation.
Mohiuddin then plotted Taher’s murder, arranging for him to be killed at his home and have his body dumped in a manhole.
On May 22, 2008, a Rajshahi court sentenced four of the suspects – Mohiuddin, Jahangir, Salam and Nazmul – to death and acquitted Salehi and Ajumuddin.
In line with procedural law, the case was then transferred to the High Court.
On Apr 21, 2013, the High Court upheld the death sentences for Mohiuddin and Jahangir, but reduced Salam and Nazmul’s sentences to life in prison.
The suspects then appealed the decision to the Appellate Division, while the state petitioned for the restoration of the death penalty for the two whose sentences had been commuted.
The hearing on the matter took place nine years later. The country’s top court upheld the death sentences of two convicts in a review of the decision on Mar 5, 2022.
The convicts later sought clemency from the president, but the petition was also rejected by the head of state.
The High Court, and then the Appellate Division, rejected an appeal seeking a stay on the execution of Jahangir’s death sentence, paving the way for the prison authorities to hang him and Mohiuddin.