RU teacher Taher killing: Appellate Division upholds death sentence of two

Professor S Taher Ahmed
File photo

Appellate Division has upheld the High Court division verdict of death sentence of two and life imprisonment of two others for the murder of Rajshahi University teacher S. Taher.

A six-member appellate board led by chief justice Hasan Foez Siddique delivered the verdict on Tuesday morning. The hearing of the appeal was finished on 16 March.

Professor Taher’s daughter Shegufta Tabassum Ahmed expressed satisfaction over the verdict.

“I’ve lost my father 16 years ago. I would be a bit relieved when the death sentence of the convicts is implemented,” she told Prothom Alo.

Rajshahi University’s geology and mining department’s professor S. Taher Ahmed’s body was recovered from a sewerage near his residence two days after he had gone missing on 1 February 2006.

His son Sanjid Alvi filed a case with Motihar police station on 3 February over the murder.

A Rajshahi Speedy Trial Tribunal on 22 May 2008 sentenced to death four accused, including the department’s teacher Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin for the murder.

The others are – caretaker of Taher’s residence Jahangir Alam, his brother and Islami Chhatra Shibir activist Abdus Salam and brother-in-law Nazmul. The court acquitted two persons.

Later, on 21 April 2013, the High Court upheld the death penalty for Mohiuddin and Jahangir but commuted death sentence of Salam and Nazmul to life imprisonment.

The convicts filed separate appeals and jail appeals against the High Court order while the prosecution filed appeals seeking an increase in sentences of the lifers.

A full bench of the Appellate Division had started the hearing on 22 February which ended on 16 March.

Lawyers SM Shahjahan and Imran A Siddique represented the convicts while attorney general AM Amin Uddin and deputy attorney general Bishwajit Debnath represented the prosecution.