A court has sentenced a man named Mozaffar Hossain Montu, 35, to life imprisonment for beating a teenager, Sohel Rana, 15, to death with a stick in Lalpur, Natore. He was also fined Tk 5 lakh and ordered to serve three more years of rigorous imprisonment if it is not paid.
The two other accused in the case, Rezaul Karim and Muktar Ali, were acquitted.
Judge Md Delwar Hossain of Natore’s Additional District and Sessions Judge’s Court 4 delivered the verdict on Wednesday afternoon in the presence of the accused.
Mozaffar Hossain Montu is the son of Munsad Ali of the Puraton Ishwardi area of Lalpur upazila. The two acquitted, Rezaul Karim, son of the late Shamser Pramanik, and Muktar Ali, son of the late Moksed Ali Pramanik, are from the same area.
According to the case documents, on the morning of 4 February 2002 Sohel and his brother Sohag went with their father, Mukul Hossain, to plant banana trees on their own land in the Puraton Ishwardi field. Rezaul Karim, Mozaffar Hossain and Muktar Ali went on to the land with sticks and iron rods and attacked them.
Sohel was seriously injured by a blow from Mozaffar’s stick. He was first admitted to Lalpur Upazila Health Complex and, when his condition worsened, to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, where he died under treatment on 10 February.
Sohel’s father, Mukul Hossain, lodged a complaint with Lalpur police station on 9 February that year naming the three. After Sohel died, police treated the complaint as a case, arrested the accused and sent them to jail. They were later freed on bail by the court. Police then submitted their report against the accused to the court after investigation.
Advocate Ruhul Amin Talukder Togor, public prosecutor of the Natore judge’s court, said the judge delivered the verdict in the presence of the accused after hearing evidence over a long period, and that the state was satisfied. Of the fine, Tk 1 lakh is to be kept in the government treasury for the cost of conducting the case and the remaining Tk 4 lakh paid to the complainant, the court ordered.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report