4 to die for murder of Champa

A Dhaka court yesterday handed down death sentence on four youths for murdering a teenage girl after gang rape in Faridpur in December 2012.

The convicts are Shamim Mondol, 24, Akash Mondol, 24, and Jahid Hasan, 24, of Rajbari district, and Babul Hossain Rajib, 22, of Faridpur.

Shamim and Jahid were produced in the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 of Dhaka before delivery of the verdict but Akash and Babul, who secured bail from the High Court in 2013, did not show up. 

Fifteen-year-old Zakia Akhter Champa was gang-raped and killed because she had refused to marry Shamim, Babul said while giving his confessional statement.

The girl of class-IX at Pordia Girls' High School in Kanaipur union went missing from a wedding ceremony at Kashemabad village in the same union on the night of December 13, 2012.

Her body was found hanging from a tree at the village the next morning.

Champa's elder brother Hasibul Islam filed a rape and murder case with Faridpur Kotwali Police Station the same day, accusing six people, including their neighbour Salam Matabbar, his son Shamim Mondol and four others.

The police pressed murder charges against five in May 2013. The victim's family rejected the charge framing and appealed for a fresh autopsy.

As ordered by the court, the body was exhumed for a second post-mortem that concluded that the victim had been raped before the murder.

The four convicts were also sentenced to life-term imprisonment for raping the girl and fined Tk 1 lakh each.

Another accused of the case, Mousumi Akhter Sumi, a relative of Shamim, was acquitted yesterday since she was not found guilty of being involved in the incident.