HC upholds death penalty for 5 in Khulna father-daughter murder case

The High Court has upheld the death penalty for five accused in the case filed over the murder of bank officer Parveen Sultana and her father Elias Chowdhury in Khulna's Labanchora. However, in the gang rape case filed over the same incident, the court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment.

A special High Court bench comprising Justice Bhishmadev Chakraborty and Justice K M Rasheduzzaman Raja delivered the verdict on Thursday (July 23).

The five convicted accused are—Md Liton, Saiful Islam Pitil, Abu Sayeed, Azizur Rahman alias Palash and Shariful Alam.

The court said the death penalty handed down by the lower court in the murder case (under Section 396 of the Penal Code for murder during dacoity) was upheld. On the other hand, under Section 9(3) of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act (rape and murder), the sentence was changed to Section 9(1), and the five accused were given life imprisonment.

Senior lawyer Mohammad Tajul Islam appeared for the complainant side, assisted by advocates Syed Al Asafur Ali Raja, Md Nazimuddin and Mahmudul Islam.

After the verdict, Tajul Islam said, "We are satisfied on at least one point that the death sentence for the accused has been upheld. In the rape case, the five accused have been given life imprisonment. We are waiting to see the full verdict. If we find observations from the judges that warrant an appeal for increasing the sentence in that case as well, we will decide after reviewing them."

He further said, "On behalf of the victim's family, I can at least say that the family will find some solace in the fact that such a brutal murder of a father and daughter has not gone unpunished; they have found redress in court. It brings a sense of relief, a sense of gratitude, I believe, for the victim's family—though true peace will only come once the full sentence is carried out."

According to case documents, the brutal incident occurred on the night of September 18, 2015, at 'Dhakaia House' in Buri Moulvi's Dargah Para area of Khulna's Labanchora.

The attackers entered the house, first strangled bank officer Parveen Sultana and her father Elias Chowdhury to death. Before that, they gang-raped Parveen. Later, they dumped the bodies in the house's septic tank and fled.

The next day, on September 19, a murder case under Section 302 of the Penal Code was filed at Labanchora Police Station by Parveen's brother and Elias Chowdhury's son, Rezaul Alam Chowdhury Biplob. During the investigation, police arrested Md Liton and Sayeed as suspects. The accused gave confessional statements before the court, revealing details of the incident.

Later, on September 22, four days after the incident, another case was filed under Section 9(3) of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act on charges of rape and murder.

Lower court verdict and legal complexities

On July 16, 2019, Khulna Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-3 sentenced the five accused—Liton, Pitil, Sayeed, Palash and Shariful—to death twice in two separate cases.

The 'death references' for confirmation of the death sentences and appeals from the accused side came to the High Court. When hearings were arranged before a special bench, jurisdictional complexities arose.

Although the crime was a single occurrence, the two cases involved different legal provisions. As the special bench was only authorised to dispose of cases under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, the murder case against Elias Chowdhury, which fell under the Penal Code, was omitted from the list.

To ensure that justice was not compromised by the two cases being heard by separate benches despite the same evidence and facts, the complainant Rezaul Alam Chowdhury filed a special petition to the Chief Justice.

At that time, both the complainant's lawyer, Advocate Syed Al Asafur Ali Raja, and the state's lawyer, Deputy Attorney General Imam Hossain Tarek, argued that for the sake of justice, the death references for both cases should be heard by the same bench.

Following the Chief Justice's directive, after continuous hearings in the same special bench, the judges delivered the final verdict today.