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A court in Kishoreganj has sentenced seven people, including a father and his two sons, to life imprisonment for beating a housewife to death over a dispute involving smoke from a cooking stove.
The court also fined each convict Tk 100,000.
Additional District and Sessions Judge-1 Mohammad Zahir Uddin of the Kishoreganj District and Sessions Judge Court delivered the verdict on Tuesday morning (10 November). All seven accused were present in court when the judgment was pronounced.
Public Prosecutor Advocate Md Mizanur Rahman confirmed the verdict.
The convicts are Manjil Mia, 65, and his sons Rabi, 37, and Aminul, 30; Shahid, 55; Mahbub, 35, son of Abul Kalam; Ziauddin, 55, son of Mashrab Ali; and Shahabuddin, 60, son of Izzat Ali.
According to the case statement, the victim, Jyotsna Begum, and the accused lived in houses within the same boundary in Jatiapara village of Gujadia union under Karimganj upazila.
A dispute arose after smoke from Jyotsna’s cooking stove entered the house of their neighbour, Koli Akter. Repeated requests to relocate the stove failed to resolve the issue.
On 16 February 2016, Jyotsna got into an argument with Koli Akter and Manjil Mia over the smoke. Other accused later joined them. At one point, they allegedly dragged Jyotsna out of her house and beat her with iron rods, wooden beams, sticks and tree branches.
When Ayesha Akter, the wife of Jyotsna’s brother, tried to intervene, she was also injured in a machete attack.
Relatives and locals rescued the two women and took them to Karimganj Hospital. As Jyotsna’s condition deteriorated, she was transferred to Kishoreganj Modern Sadar Hospital, where she died later that night.
Following the incident, Jyotsna’s husband, Habibur Rahman, filed a murder case. After a lengthy trial, the court sentenced all seven accused to life imprisonment and imposed the fines.