Hearing of appeal begins

Over three years after the trial court's delivery of judgment, hearing of appeal against the verdict in the sensational Jayanti Reza murder case began in the High Court (HC) yesterday.
On the first day of the hearing, Deputy Attorney General Nahid Mahtab, counsel for the state, read out the paper book in the case before the HC bench comprising Justice AKM Fazlur Rahman and Justice ATM Fazle Kabir.
At the end of the day's proceedings, the court fixed July 15 for the next hearing.
Judge AR Masud of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 of Dhaka, delivered the verdict in Jayanti Reza murder case on January 17, 2005.
The judge found Azam Reza, Jayanti's husband, guilty and sentenced him to death for killing his wife, an architect and a teacher of an English-medium school.
Police recovered the body of Jayanti, a teacher of Australian International School, hanging from the ceiling fan in their Banani house on January 9, 2004.
Jayanti's mother Lusil Sadekin filed a general diary (GD) with Gulshan Police Station mentioning that Azam murdered his wife with the intent to have Afsana Mimi as his life partner.
Later, Lusil filed a case accusing Azam, his sister Shampa Reza and Afsana Mimi of killing her daughter.
The Detective Branch (DB) of police on March 30, 2004 indicted Azam for murdering Jayanti, while dropped the names of Shampa Reza and Afsana Mimi from the charge sheet on the grounds that there was not enough evidence against the two.
Azam filed an appeal with the HC against the trial court judgement in the case.
Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain was present for Azam in the court.