HC upholds death sentence for 3

The High Court yesterday upheld the death sentence for three people for killing an imam of a mosque at Ramna in the capital in December 2010.
The HC, however, acquitted two others accused, one of whom had been sentenced to death and the other life term imprisonment by a lower court.
Maulana Hafez Mohammad Ishaque, 50, pesh imam of police officers' quarters Jame Mosque, went missing on December 20 in 2010. His brother filed a case in this connection the following day. Ishaque's body was found in a flat in West Shewrapara ten days after he went missing.
The three accused, whose death sentence penalties were upheld by the HC, are Kazi Baezid, Ikram alias Masud and Murad Hossain.
The two acquitted are Abdur Rahim Sarder, who was sentenced to death earlier, and Mohammad Nazimuddin.
On December 21, 2011, Judge Motahar Hossain of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 of Dhaka had awarded life term imprisonment to Nazimuddin and sentenced the others to death.

Contacted yesterday, Deputy Attorney General Md Selim said Rahim and Nazimuddin got acquittal from the HC as the charges brought against them were not proven.
He said Ikram and Murad are absconding but the others are in jail. Abdur Rahim and Nazimuddin will now be released from jail.
Citing the case, Md Selim said there was a conflict between Abdur Rahim and Ishaque over a salt factory. Abdur Rahim, who was in Malaysia at the time, had hired Baezid, Ikram and Murad over telephone to kill Ishaque.