A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced three staffers of Hanif Paribahan   to death in a case filed over the murder of North South University student Saidur Rahman Payel in July of 2018.

The convicts are: driver Jamal Hossain, his brother and helper Faisal Hossain, and supervisor Md Johny.

Judge Abu Zafar Md Kamruzzaman of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 of Dhaka handed down the sentence in presence of the trio in the courtroom.

Dhaka Metropolitan Special Public Prosecutor Abu Abdullah Bhuiyan said the prosecution was satisfied with the verdict.

Defence lawyer Hazzatul Islam said they would challenge the verdict at higher courts.

According to the prosecution, Payel, a BBA fifth-semester student of North South University, went missing while returning to Dhaka from Chattogram on a bus of Hanif Paribahan on July 21, 2018.

On July 23, his body was recovered from the canal under Bhaterchar bridge in Gazaria upazila in Munshiganj.

Golam Sorwardy Biplob, uncle of the victim, filed a murder case with Gazaria Police Station the next day.

Police arrested three employees of that bus from the capital.

One of them later told a Munshiganj court that there was traffic jam near Bhaterchar at Gazaria on Dhaka-Chittagong highway, where the bus that carried Payel got stuck. Payel got off the bus to relieve himself, and before he could board the bus, the vehicle set off as traffic started moving again. He ran behind the bus. The bus stopped but he injured himself badly when the bus's automatic door opened on him. He fell unconscious.

The supervisor informed the matter to the driver. Driver Jamal Hossain, helper Faisal and supervisor Johny together decided to not take Payel back on the bus. Instead, they carried the bloodied youth and threw him into a canal from over the Bhaterchar bridge. It was about 4:00am and the passengers were sleeping.

Inspector Mamun Al Rashid of Gazaria Police Station pressed charges against the three on October 24, 2018.

Following an appeal by Payel's family, the case was moved to the Speedy Trial Tribunal of Chattogram on December 24 that year.

The tribunal framed charges against them on April 2 last year.

Later, the case was moved to the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 of Dhaka for judgement.

Fourteen prosecution witnesses gave their depositions before the tribunal in the case.

Earlier, the tribunal fixed yesterday for delivering the judgement on completion the arguments from both prosecution and defence.