The Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence of one convicted in the case over rape and murder of Shazneen Tasnim Rahman in her Gulshan house about two decades ago.

Condemned convict Shahidul Islam alias Shahidul was domestic help of her house.

The apex court, however, acquitted four other accused -- contractor Syed Sajjad Mainuddin Hasan, his assistant Badal, housemaids Estema Khatun Minu and Parvin -- in the case.

A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha delivered the verdict as it earlier heard appeals filed by the accused challenging the High Court verdict that had confirmed the death sentence.

On July 10, 2006, the High Court upheld the death penalty for the five persons -- Shahid, Badal, Hasan, Minu and Parvin -- sentenced by a lower court and acquitted another in the case.

Shazneen, who was a class IX student of Scholastica, was raped and murdered at her Gulshan house on April 23, 1998.

TRIAL IN THE LOWER COURT

The lower court delivered the verdict on September 2, 2003 and sentenced all the six accused to death for killing the victim after rape.