BLOGGER RAJIB MURDER HC upholds death of 2 ex-NSU st

The High Court Division on Sunday upheld the death sentences of Rezwanul Azad Rana and Faisal Bin Nayeem Dwip, both former North South University students and various jail terms to five other students of the same university and a mosque imam for murdering blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider Shovon on February 15, 2013.
A bench of Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim and Justice Md Jahangir Hossain upheld the sentences after hearing the death reference and rejecting the appeals of Rezwan and Faisal as well as the six others.
NSU student Md Maksudul Hasan Anik had appealed against his life term while Md Ehsan Reza Rumman, Nayeem Sikdar Erad and Nafis Imtiaz appealed against their 10-year terms, and Sadman Yasir Mahmud against his three-year term while Hatem Bagh Mosque’s Imam Mufti Md Jashim Uddin Rahmani had appealed against his five-year term.
Ehsan, Nayeem, Nafis and Sadman were also NSU students when they took part in the offence.
In its observations, the bench said that it found no ground to reduce the sentences handed by Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal 3 on December 31, 2015, due to the horrendous and heinous act of hacking the victim to 
death on the spot.
The bench upheld the Imam’s sentence for inspiring the offenders to kill the blogger.
It also said in the observations that only a court of law could punish anyone for showing disrespect to any religion and also that no one else had the right to take the law in their own hands to punish anyone for their acts against any religion. 
It said that the evidence shows that all the seven convicts were meritorious students of the North South University and though their parents held important positions they bore the responsibility for their children taking the wrong path. 
About the flaws in investigation into the case detected by the trial court, the bench asked the inspector general of police to seriously look into the issue and always assign skilled and dedicated investigators to probe into such cases.
On February 15, 2013, blogger and Gono Jagoron Moncho organizer Rajib Haider became the 1st victim of targeted murder right in front of his house at Pallabi in the capital. 
Since then, bloggers Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, Avijit Roy, Ananta Bijoy, Niladri Chatterjee Niloy, Xulhaz Mannan, Khandaker Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, Faisal Arefin Dipan and Nazimuddin Samad fell victim to targeted killing on different dates.
The investigators could produce no evidence to support their contention that the banned Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Mufti Jashim had motivated the seven NSU students to kill secular blogger Rajib for his anti-Islamic blogs.
Rajib’s father Nazimuddin, a physician, expressed dissatisfaction over not sentencing all the eight self-confessed extremists to death. 
Defence lawyer Kamal Hossain Mia told reporters that the convicts would appeal against the decision of the High Court Division. 

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