Five get life term

A court here yesterday sentenced five people to life term imprisonment in connection with a case filed for raping two schoolgirls in 2016.

The convicts, Ujjal Khan, 25, Sukur Ali, 26, Miraj Sheikh, 25, Ellias Bepary, 20, and Shafi Mollah, 25, of Char Salepur village in Charbhadransan upazila, were tried in absentia, Public Prosecutor (PP) Shapon Paul said.

Judge Mohammad Alamgir Kabir of Faridpur Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal also fined the convicts Tk 1 lakh each. In default, they are to suffer three years more in jail, the PP added.

According to the prosecution, the convicts picked up the two schoolgirls, then Class IX students at a local high school, while they were returning home from a local market and took them to a corn field nearby on April 14, 2016.

The culprits raped the two girls there and videoed the heinous act.

They later phoned the victims’ family members and demanded Tk 1 lakh as ransom, otherwise, threatened that they would spread the videos through the internet.

Later, failing to get the ransom money the convicts uploaded the videos in the internet.

On June 11, 2016, father of one of the victims filed a case with Faridpur Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal accusing the five.

After investigation, Ram Prasad Bhokta, the then officer in charge of Charbhadrasan Police Station, submitted the charge sheet against the five on October 22 the same year.