Three men were sentenced to life term imprisonment for raping and abetting rape of a woman and her daughter Gaibandha's Gobindaganj upazila in 2018. Judge Md Abdur Rahman of Gaibandha's Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-2, gave the verdict yesterday.

The convicts are Belal Hossain (40), Emdadul Haque (42) and Khaja Mia (45). Two other accused in the charge-sheet -- Asadul Islam and Azizul -- were aquitted, said AKM Mohibul Haque, special public prosecutor.

The court also fined each of the convicted Tk 1 lakh. Khaja was punished for assisting the other two.

According to the case statement, the accused were members of a fraud group, locally known as "Jiner Badsha''. They lured the victims from Jamalpur to Gobindaganj on May 12, 2018. After the victims got off their bus that night, the gang took them to a remote area and raped them.