Rakib murder: SC upholds life imprisonment of two convicts

The Supreme Court today upheld a High Court verdict that sentenced two convicts to life imprisonment for killing Khulna's 13-year-old Rakib Hawlader in August, 2015.

The convicts, Rakib's employer Md Sharif and his uncle Mintu Khan, had inserted an air pump nozzle into the 13-year-old's rectum and filled his abdomen with air as punishment for changing his workplace -- an incident that triggered public outrage across the country.

A bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain today dismissed the appeals filed by convicts Sharif and Mintu challenging the HC verdict, Deputy Attorney General Bishwajit Debnath told The Daily Star.

The grounds and observations on which the apex court delivered the verdict could not be known as its full text was not released yet.

In November 2015, the Khulna Metropolitan Magistrate Court sentenced Rakib's former employer Omar Sharif and his uncle Mintu Khan to death for killing Rakib.

On April 4, 2017, the HC commuted the death penalty of Omar Sharif and Mintu Khan to life imprisonment in the case.

The punishment was reduced on the ground that the convicts had taken critically sick Rakib to hospital for treatment and that there was no record of previous criminal activities against them.

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