Narayanganj Correspondent: A court in Narayanganj has sentenced 26 people including former NCC councilor Nur Hossain and dismissed Rab officials Lt Col Tareque Sayeed Mohammad, Maj Arif Hossain and Lt Commander MM Rana to death in the sensational seven-murder case.
Syed Enayet Hossain of District and Sessions Judge Court in Narayanganj delivered the verdict on Monday morning amid high security.
Twenty-three, including Nur Hossain and dismissed Rab officials were present on the dock during the pronouncing of the verdict while 12 are on the run.
The court also awarded jail to nine othre for various terms in the case.
Earlier, the district and session judge�s court started reading out the verdict around 10:03am amid tight security in and around the court premises.
On November 30, last year, Judge Syed Enayetur Rahman of the District and Sessions Judge�s Court set the date (January 16) for delivery of the verdict on completion of arguments in the cases.
Earlier, the trial in the two cases started through charge framing against the accused on February 8, last year.
A total of 146 prosecution witnesses testified before the court during the trial proceedings in the cases.
On April 8, 2015, Detective Branch (DB) of police submitted charge sheet in the seven-murder case against the 35 accused, including 25 members of elite force RAB.
According to the case, on April 27, 2014, seven people, including Narayanganj panel mayor Nazrul Islam and senior lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar, were abducted from Dhaka-Narayanganj link road. Later, their bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya River.
Nazrul�s father-in-law Shahidul Islam alleged that RAB personnel abducted and killed Nazrul in exchange for Tk 6 crore received from the then ward councilor Nur Hossain.
The three RAB officials are Tareque Sayeed, Arif Hossain and Masud Rana.
Nur Hossain, who fled to India after the grisly murders, was arrested in Kolkata on June 14, 2015. He was staying in India without valid documents.
Later, on November 12, 2015, Indian government handed over Nur Hossain to Bangladesh.
Nazrul�s wife Selina Islam filed a case against six people, including Nur Hossain with Fatullah police station in connection with the sensation murder.
Bijoy Kumar Pal, son-in-law of another victim advocate Chandan Sarkar filed another case with the same police station.
The three top RAB officials among 19 accused gave confessional statements before the magistrate under section 164 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CPC) in the two cases.