8 to die for killing UP chairman
Staff Correspondent, Khulna
Eight received death penalty while four others were acquitted in the sensational murder case of union parishad (UP) chairman Sheikh Mostafa Habib.District and Sessions Judge of Khulna AKM Ishtiaque Hossain delivered the verdict yesterday in presence of the accused. The recipients of death penalty are Sheikh Akram Hossain, Kamrul Islam, Md Jamil Hossain, Noor-e-Alam, Minhaj Sarder, Arjan Ali, Shahid Golder and Motiar Rahman alias Moti Mian. The acquitted are Ahsan, Rafique Mallik, Sobhan Mallik and Mujibar Sheikh. On April 3, 1999, chairman of Shurkhali union parishad under Batiaghati upazila Sheikh Mostafa Habib was gunned down and later slaughtered in the house of one Shukhlal Mondal. Amena Begum, mother of the slain, lodged an FIR with Batiaghata Police Station naming nine persons and nine unidentified others for murdering her son. Investigation Officer (IO) Sub-inspector Atiar Rahman of Batiaghata Police Station submitted charge sheet on April 4, 2002 accusing 12 persons. On the charge sheet, the IO recorded that Sheikh Akram Hossain, the prime suspect, masterminded the murder after his rival Mostafa Habib defeated Akram in the UP election.
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