Apu murder: Death penalty for two accused upheld

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty awarded by the High Court to two convicts in a case filed over the murder of Ashikur Rahman Khan Apu in 2008.

The convicts are Monjurul Abedin Russell and Nawshad Hossain Molla Robin.

Besides, Mohammad Ali Munna was sentenced to life imprisonment and Iftekhar Jhalak was sentenced to jail until death.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan passed the order on Tuesday (June 4).

According to the case statement, on May 23, 2008, the accused took Apu’s brother Arifur Rahman Khan Setu, son of Advocate Rais Uddin, to the playground of Silverdale School from a house in Wari under Sutrapur police station.

On information, Setu’s brothers Apu and Atiqur Rahman Khan Bappi went there and the accused shot them indiscriminately.

Later, locals took the injured to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where doctors declared Apu dead. The other two brothers survived but were paralyzed.

The victim’s sister Atia Khan Keya filed a murder case with Sutrapur police station against seven named people.

Inspector Maksudur Rahman of Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police submitted the charge sheet against the seven accused on August 31, 2008.

According to the charge sheet, the accused committed the murder demanding Tk12 lakh extortion. The court framed charges against the accused on April 12, 2009.

On March 13, 2012, Judge Shahed Nuruddin of Dhaka’s Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 sentenced two people to death and four others to life in prison in the murder case.

One of the accused, Atiq Ahmed Shiplu, was acquitted.

Then the death reference was sent to the High Court as per the rules.

On May 7, 2018, the High Court upheld the death penalty for two accused in the murder case.