A powerful message for child beaters and molesters

A Bangladesh court on November 08, 2015 handed four men death sentence over the brutal killing of a 13-year-old boy that provoked national outrage after video footage of the attack went viral. Another two men were ordered to hang for torture and murder of a 12-year-old boy. In addition, another court on November0 9, 2015 pronounced a verdict of death on six persons and life imprisonment on  one for the killing of an 8-year-old boy.
In the first case, where ten people were found guilty in Kumargaon of the north-eastern city of Sylhet of lynching Samiul Alam Rajon, the verdict sparked cheers from hundreds of people who gathered outside the courtroom. A lawyer representing the victim's family said after the Metropolitan Sessions Court's decision that "We're happy with the judgment. Rajon's parents are satisfied".
Rajon, accused of stealing a bicycle, was tied to a pole on July 08, 2015 and then subjected to brutal assault. Autopsy found 64 separate injuries inflicted on the teenager. A 28-minute video of the lynching, which was widely circulated after being posted on the social media, prompted deep soul-searching among people from all walks of life leading to street protests demanding the perpetrators to be hanged.
The lawyer told that the main accused, Kamrul Islam, was sentenced to death. Three of his friends were given the same sentence, one of them in absentia. Another six accused were given jail sentences ranging from life-term to one year. Kamrul Islam also fled to Saudi Arabia, a day after the attack, but he was later arrested and extradited after outraged members of the large Bangladeshi expatriate community tipped off the police.
In the video, the terrified youngster was heard screaming in pain and repeating: "Please don't beat me like this, I will die". At one stage, he was told to walk away. But as he tried to get to his feet, one of the attackers shouted: "His bones are okay. Beat him more". On October 25, 2015, all the arrested accused in the sensational murder case pleaded not guilty before the court. They claimed themselves innocent when the judge read out the charges against them.   
In the second case in the south-western city of Khulna, a mechanic and his assistant were sentenced to death on November 08, 2015 for torturing a 12-year-old former employee to death with an air compressor used for inflating tires. Police said the employer, Mohammad Sharif, became enraged after Rakib left his workshop for another job, and during the attack he inserted the compressor tube into his rectum and switched on the machine. The Metropolitan Sessions Court sentenced Sharif and his assistant Mohammad Mintu to death for the murder of Rakib.
In the third case a Mymensingh court has pronounced a verdict of death on six people and life imprisonment on one for the murder of an 8-year-old boy named Farhad. An Additional Sessions Judge in Mymensingh court delivered the verdict in the case of Farhad's murder on November 09, 2015. The verdict comes a day after courts in Sylhet and Khulna sentenced six people to death over the murders of two minor boys earlier this year. In May 2010, school boy Farhad's body was found in a pond near his home at Mymensingh's Muktagachha Upazila. The family filed a case the next day in 2010, accusing seven of the killing. Police later pressed charges against them. The November 9, 2015 verdict found all of them guilty of murder  
Lynching of the three boys was done by a gang of heartless people whose acts of cruelty defy imagination. It is worth mentioning that violence against children has been on the rise lately since very few of the perpetrators have been made to face justice. Added to this is the usual long-drawn procedure in the legal system and loopholes therein that allow many of the perpetrators go unpunished.
The first two courts deserve compliment for completing the trial in a short period of slightly more than four months, in 14 working days in the case of Rajon and 10 working days in the case of Rakib.  The government also deserves compliment for its promptness in bringing back Kamrul Islam, the main accused in Rajon murder, from Saudi Arabia. Rajon's family, now feeling threatened, should be provided with security by the government.
The authorities concerned should treat all such cases with equal promptness and form, if necessary, special courts so that similar cases related to violence against children could be disposed of as quickly as possible. We are sure that the verdicts will send a powerful message to all those child beaters and molesters, although the condemned reserve the right to appeal in the higher court of law.

The writer is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General Education Cadre.
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