A Dhaka court yesterday sentenced a woman to 30 years' rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping a 16-year-old girl and selling her to a brothel in May 2004.
Judge Mohammad Abdus Sohan of the Special Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression handed down the sentence in presence of the convict Lily Begum at a packed courtroom.
Earlier, the prosecution and the defence had completed their arguments and the court recorded statements of seven prosecution witnesses.
According to the prosecution, Lily kidnapped the girl aged about 16 and daughter of Abdul Mannan at Mirpur in the city on May 22, 2004, and took her to Dauladia under Goalanda upazila in Rajbari district and sold her to a brothel.
Victim's father looked for his daughter at different places and he came to know from one Abdus Salam that his daughter was sold to Dauladia brothel. Later police recovered the victim from there and a case was filed against Lily with Mirpur Police Station on August 18.
The investigation officer pressed charges against Lily on December 23 the same year and the court framed charges against her on May 23, 2006.
Special Public Prosecutor Ali Asgar Swapan appeared for the state while Advocate Shamsul Haq Tapadar defended the accused.