Three to walk gallows for killing garment worker after robbery

A Dhaka court on Tuesday sentenced three people to death and fined them Tk20,000 each for killing a 17-year-old garment worker after robbing him at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial in the capital’s Mirpur area in 2022.

The death-row convicts are Md Yusuf, Iqbal Khan and Mehedi Hasan. The court also sentenced another accused, Sujon, to three years in jail in the case over possessing stolen property.

Dhaka Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge-13 Zahidul Islam pronounced the judgment, state prosecutor of the court Abul Kalam Azad said.

Earlier in the day, before the verdict, Yusuf, Iqbal and Mehedi were produced before the court and later sent to jail with warrants. The court also issued an arrest warrant along with the warrant for his sentence against absconding accused Sujon.

According to the case documents, Saimon worked at a garment factory in Mirpur-1. On 11 October 2022, he withdrew his salary and went shopping in Mirpur-1 with two colleagues.

At around 9:00pm, while returning home, three robbers intercepted Saimon and his colleague Rifat in front of Aarong Shopping Centre.

They took them by rickshaw to Kachabazar near the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial and dropped Rifat off.

The robbers then took Saimon inside the memorial, threatened him with knives and demanded his valuables. When he refused, they stabbed him and fled with his money and mobile phone.

Locals later rescued Saimon and took him to NITOR, where doctors declared him dead.

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Following the incident, Saimon’s father, Shajahan Sheikh, filed a case with Darus Salam Police Station against unidentified people.

On 31 January 2023, police submitted a charge sheet against Yusuf, Iqbal and Mehedi for robbery and murder, and against Sujon for possessing stolen property.

The court framed charges against the accused on 2 August of the same year and started the trial. During the trial, the court recorded the statements of 18 witnesses.