HC settles 4yr legal battle over burial

Lipa Rani Roy, of Domar Upazila in Niphamari, left Hinduism, converted to Islam and married her lover Humayun Farid Laju of the same upazila in October 2013.

After conversion, Lipa took a Muslim name -- Hosne Ara Islam Liaju.

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However, in the face of social and family pressure after their marriage, the couple killed themselves on different dates in 2014.

Hosne Ara's body was kept in a Rangpur mortuary all these years due to legal tangles over her burial.

Yesterday, the High Court settled the matter, ordering the authorities to bury her in line with Islamic rituals.

The HC asked the Nilphamari executive magistrate to take action in this regard and also ensure the presence of her family during the burial.

The HC bench of Justice Miftah Uddin Choudhury passed the order after hearing a petition by Zahurul Islam, her father-in-law.

Deputy Attorney General Shaikh AKM Moniruzzaman Kabir told The Daily Star that the girl's father Akshay Kumar Roy filed a case with a Nilphamari court against Humayun in 2013 on charges of kidnapping his daughter.

In the case, Akshay claimed that his daughter was not adult and she was mentally imbalanced.

But the court dismissed the case upon hearing Hosne Ara and Humayun.

Akshay later appealed the verdict in another Nilphamari court, which sent Hosne Ara to Rajshahi Safe Home for examining her mental and physical condition.

On January 15, 2014, Humayun took poison and died.

The next day, Akshay took his daughter to his home.

In March that year, Hosne Ara killed herself by taking poison.

Following the autopsy, her body was kept in the Rangpur mortuary following a court order.

In 2014, a Nilphamari court ordered the authorities the hand over the body to her parents for her last rites in Hindu tradition.

Her father-in-law challenged the verdict with the HC, which overturned the Nilphamari court verdict.