HC verdict on Narayanganj seven-murder deferred to Aug 22

The High Court Division is due to deliver today its verdict on the death reference of 26 convicts in the sensational seven murders that took place in the river port city of Narayanganj in 2014.
It would also give verdicts in appeals filed by 21 recipients of death sentence in the sensational case of murders that shook the nation.
The 26 convicts include local Awami League leader Noor Hossain, the then Rapid Action Battalion commanding officer in Narayanganj Lieutenant Colonel Tarek Sayeed Mohammad and RAB officers Major Arif Hossain and Lieutenant Commander Masud Rana. On July 26, completion of hearing spread over 33 working days, a bench of Justice Bhabani Prasad Singha and Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam announced the schedule for giving the verdict. 
On January 16, a trial court in Narayanganj handed death sentence to 26 offenders, including 16 RAB members, and various jail terms to nine other RAB men, finding them guilty of murdering local AL leader and Narayanganj City Corporation ward councilor Nazrul Islam, lawyer Chandan Kumar Sarkar and five others.
The trial court also found them guilty of hatching the conspiracy to abduct, murder and dumping the bodies of the seven victims in the Sitalakkhya River to destroy the evidence of their crimes.
According to the trial court verdict, Nazrul and his four associates were abducted by two RAB teams, one led by Major Arif and the other by commander Rana from near Narayanganj court premises at about 1.40PM on April 27, 2014.
Later, the RAB men abducted Chandan Kumar Sarkar and his driver as he had protested against what he thought the arrest of Nazrul and his associates.
All the seven persons were taken to RAB office in Narsingdi and were brought to the Katchpur Bridge at night after they had been murdered.
The murders took place on the way inside microbuses by making the victims senseless by injecting anesthesia and later they were strangled using poly bags.
Victims bodies were carried by several trawlers and dumped in the Meghna River where it meets Sitalakkhya.
On April 30, 2014, victims bodies were found afloat in the Shitalakhya River.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net