Barnali Rape, Murder in Bagerhat
Two to die, 4 get life
Barnali Ghosh
Khulna Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal yesterday sentenced two people to death and four others to life imprisonment for killing a college girl after rape in Rampal upazila of Bagerhat district in 2007. Those awarded death penalty are Kamal Hossain and Moktar Hossain Mukta. The lifers are Hasan Sheikh, Mahbub Hossain, Nazmul Hossain and Nahid Sheikh. They all hail from Chitra village under Rampal upazila. The tribunal also fined the lifers Tk 10,000 each, in default they are to suffer another year in jail. Judge Md Sikander Ali delivered the verdict in the case at 5:30 pm. He acquitted six other accused, as charges brought against them could not be proved. According to the prosecution, Barnali Ghosh, an honours student of Khulna Government Azam Khan Commerce College, was abducted from her house at Chitra village under Rampal upazila on the night of June 30, 2007. The abductors took the college girl to a shop at the village, stuffed a piece of cloth into her mouth and raped her. Later, the gang took the unconscious girl to an orchard owned by Jalil Munshi of the village at the instruction of Chitra Union Parishad Chairman Jamil Hossain Jamu and killed her by pouring acid on her body. Barnali's father Bipul Ghosh filed a general diary with Rampal Police Station on July 3 the same year stating that his daughter went missing. On July 11, police recovered Barnali's body from the orchard. On the following day, Bipul Ghosh filed a case with the police station, accusing Moktar Hossain and Kamal Hossain of killing his daughter. Immediately after filing of the case, police arrested Moktar. He made confessional statement before to court under Section 164 and disclosed the names of other gang members. Two separate cases were later recorded with Rampal Police Station in connection with gang-rape and murder of the college girl naming 13 people as accused. The accused in the cases were Raju, Munmun, UP Chairman Jamir Hossain Jamu, Moktar Hossain Mukta, Kamal, Wazed, Nahid, Mahbub, Liton, Hasan, Akbar Hossain, Monoj and Nazmul. The cases were transferred to Khulna Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal in November last year from Bagerhat court. Inspector Tofazzal Hossain of the Detective Branch of Bagerhat district police submitted a charge sheet to the court on February 18, 2008. Statements of 22 out of 36 prosecution witnesses of the case filed for acid attack and statements of 19 of the 36 prosecution witnesses of the case filed under Women Repression Act were recorded by the court during trial. The court could not try UP Chairman Jamir Hossain Jamu, one of the 13 charge-sheeted accused, as the High Court stayed trial proceedings against him.
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