The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of two convicts, including a former teacher of Rajshahi University (RU), and life imprisonment of two others for killing RU Professor S Taher Ahmed in 2006.
A six-member full bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique delivered the verdict after dismissing the appeals filed by the convicts challenging the HC verdict on them.
The HC in its verdict on April 21, 2013, confirmed the death sentence of the former RU teacher Dr Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin and caretaker of Taher's residence Jahangir Alam for their involvement in the gruesome murder of Prof Taher.
The HC, however, commuted the death sentence of two other convicts to life term imprisonment. These two convicts are Jahangir Alam's brother Abdus Salam and brother-in-law Nazmul.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin and Deputy Attorney General Bishwajit Debnath represented the state during the hearing while lawyers Khandker Mahbub Hossain, SM Shahjahan and Imran A Siddique appeared for the convicted accused.
Prof Taher's wife Sultana Ahmed, son Sanjid Alvi (plaintiff of the case) and daughter Shagufta Tabassum were present at the courtroom during the deliberation of the verdict.
After the verdict, Sultana Ahmed said, "We have struggled a lot for sixteen years for this verdict. We are satisfied with the verdict. We will be fully satisfied if the verdict is executed."
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