HC upholds death sentence for 8 in Sima murder case
The High Court (HC) on Tuesday (Jan 28) upheld the death sentences of eight convicts among 10 given by a court in a case filed for raping and killing a school student Shrimti Nath Sima of Laxmipur.
The HC bench of Justice Bhabani Prashad Singha and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Molla pronounced the verdict.
The condemned convicts are Manik Hossain, Saddam Hossain, Hiron, Rashedul Islam, Sumon, Nur Alam, Nur Nabi and Choukidar Hedayetullah.
The HC also commuted death sentences of the two other convicts – Anwar and Sohel - to life term imprisonment.
Of them; Manik, Saddam, Sumon, Sohel and Rashedul were tried in absentia.
According to the prosecution, a gang of robbers, numbering 25-30, swooped on the house of Manik Laxman at Basudouhita village under Chandraganj union in Sadar upazila on July 18, 2012 and looted valuables worth Tk five lakh after keeping the house inmates hostage at gunpoint.
The bandits also strangulated Manik's daughter Sima Rani Debnath, then a Class-VII student of Pratapganj High School, after violating her.
Victim's grandfather Krishna Das filed a case the following day in this regard.
On September 16 in 2014, Laxmipur district and session Judge Manjurul Basit had sentenced the 10 persons to death and acquitted 15 other accused in the case.
