Bangladesh High Court Upholds Death Sentences for Five in Father-Daughter Murder Case

The High Court of Bangladesh has upheld the death sentences for five individuals convicted in the 2015 murder of a father and daughter in Khulna's Labonchora area. The court also commuted the death sentences for the same five men to life imprisonment in the separate case related to the rape of the daughter. The ruling was delivered today by a High Court bench comprising Justices Bhishmadev Chakrabortty and KM Rasheduzzaman Raja. The convicted individuals are Md. Liton, Saidul Islam alias Pitil, Abu Sayeed, Azizur Rahman alias Palash, and Shariful Islam, all of whom are currently incarcerated. The original verdicts for both murder and rape were handed down by the Khulna Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-3 on July 16, 2019. The death reference for the murder case reached the High Court in 2019, followed by appeals from the convicts. The court heard appeals and death references before issuing today's judgment. Defense lawyers represented the accused, while Deputy Attorney General Imam Hossain Tarek represented the state, with senior lawyer Mohammad Tajul Islam and his colleagues appearing for the prosecution. The defense indicated plans to appeal after receiving the certified copy of the High Court's decision. In the murder case, the High Court upheld the death penalty by amending the charge to murder during dacoity, rather than the original charge. For the rape conviction, the court altered the sentence from death under Section 9(3) of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act to life imprisonment under Section 9(1). The incident occurred on September 18, 2015, at a semi-pucca house where the father, Elias Chowdhury (73), and his daughter, Parveen Sultana (30), resided. Their bodies were discovered in a septic tank by the victim's brother, Rezaul Alam Chowdhury, after he was alerted to their unresponsive phones. The initial murder case was filed on September 19, 2015. Following the arrest and confession of Md. Liton, the investigation revealed the involvement of all five in both the rape and murder. A separate case for rape was filed against the five men on September 22, 2015. According to the prosecution, the father was strangled first, followed by the gang rape and murder of the daughter, with their bodies then concealed in the septic tank, and valuables stolen.