Man sentenced to death for rape, murder

A Rangpur court yesterday sentenced a man to death and fined him Tk 1 lakh for killing a minor girl after rape in the district's Pirganj upazila in 2016.

In a separate incident, Rajshahi police arrested a man in the district for raping an autistic girl who became pregnant.

The convict of Rangpur is Riad Prodhan, 25, of Ramnathpur village in the same upazila.

Judge Mostafa Pavel Raihan of Rangpur's Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-3 came up with the verdict in presence of the convicted persons.

According to the prosecution, the then seven-year- old girl Tanjila Khatun, daughter of Shahjahan Ali, a day labourer of Ramnathpur village in Birganj upazila, was playing at an adjacent place to her house on June 14, 2016.

At that time, Riad took the girl to a nearby house luring her to give a mango. Then, he raped the girl.

As the girl started screaming, Riad strangled the girl to death. Later, Riad with the help of his domestic maid Doli Begum hid the body in his room after wrapping the body with a cement bag.

Three days later, police recovered the body and arrested Riad and Doli.

Later, the father of the girl filed a case with Pirganj Police Station accusing Riad and Doli Begum.

Police filed charge sheet on December 12 of the same year.

Finally yesterday, the court yesterday delivered its verdict acquitting Doli from the case.

In Rajshahi, police arrested a man on charge of raping a neighbouring autistic girl around six months ago in Paba upazila.

The arrestee is Nuruzzaman, 42, of Baksara village in the upazila. He is a father of three.

Police said the 17-year-old girl used to work as a house help at Nuruzzaman's house. Taking the chance, he raped her around six months ago.

The incident came to light as the girl was found positive in pregnancy test around one week ago.

Later on Monday evening, the victim's father files case against Nuruzzaman.

Then, police rushed to the area to investigate into the incident, said Sheikh Mohammad Golam Mostafa, officer-in-charge of Paba Police Station.

"The girl cannot talk. When we asked about the incident, she showed Nuruzzaman," he said.

However, Nuruzzaman denied the allegation in primary interrogation, added the police officer.

[Our Dinajpur and Rajshahi correspondents contributed to this report]