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The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will hear appeals in the sensational 2014 Narayanganj seven-murder case on November 17.
The chamber court of the Appellate Division fixed the date on Sunday (October 18), Attorney General Barrister Md Ruhul Quddus Kajal told reporters.
On April 27, 2014, Narayanganj City Corporation’s then panel mayor Nazrul Islam and six others were abducted from the Lamapara area of Fatullah along the Dhaka-Narayanganj Link Road. Their bodies were recovered three days later.
The victims were Nazrul Islam, then councillor of Ward 2 and panel mayor-2 of Narayanganj City Corporation; his friends Moniruzzaman Swapan, Tajul Islam and Liton; his driver Jahangir Alam; lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarker; and Chandan’s driver Ibrahim.
Two murder cases were filed with Fatullah Police Station. Nazrul’s wife, Selina Islam Beauty, filed one over the deaths of her husband and four associates, while Chandan’s son-in-law, Bijoy Kumar Pal, filed the other over the lawyer’s murder and that of his driver.
On January 16, 2017, a Narayanganj trial court sentenced 26 of the 35 accused to death, including former Narayanganj councillor Nur Hossain and three dismissed senior officials of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). The remaining nine accused received different terms of imprisonment.
The accused appealed against the verdict, while the death references were sent to the High Court for approval of the death sentences.
After hearing the appeals and death references over 33 working days, the High Court delivered its verdict on August 22, 2017. It upheld the death sentences of 15 of the 26 condemned convicts and commuted the sentences of the remaining 11 to life imprisonment. The court also upheld the prison terms imposed on the other nine convicts.
Those whose death sentences were upheld include Nur Hossain and three former RAB-11 officers: Lt Col (retd) Tarek Sayeed Mohammad, Maj (retd) Arif Hossain and Lt Cdr (retd) Masud Rana.
The 11 convicts whose death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment include former RAB members Asaduzzaman Nur and Enamul Kabir, along with nine associates of Nur Hossain.
The nine other convicts, all former RAB officials or members, received prison terms ranging from seven to 17 years.
The upcoming Appellate Division hearing is the next major stage in the long-running legal proceedings in the case.
