NUSRAT MURDER Principal, AL leader, 14 others found guilty [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

NUSRAT MURDER Principal, AL leader, 14 others found guilty

Local May 29, 2019

The Police Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday that the charges for murdering Nusrat Jahan Rafi by setting her on fire would be pressed in a Feni court today against Sonagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrassah principal SM Siraj-ud-Doula, local Awami League leader Ruhul Amin, three classmates of the victim and 11others.
All the 16 accused had been detained after arrest, PBI chief Banaj Kumar Majumder said at a news briefing at PBI’s Dhanmondi headquarters in the capital.
He said that investigations revealed the involvement 15 accused in setting Nusrat on fire, that caused her death, on orders from principal Siraj.
He said that the roles of each accused had been given in detail in the 722-page charge sheet.
He said that the highest punishment, prescribed in the law, had been sought for each accused in the charge-sheet.
He said that principal Siraj was made the prime accused as evidence gathered by the PBI show that he had given the order to murder Nusrat.
He said that among the five direct participants in Nusrat’s murder, three were her classmates.
He said that minutes after setting Nusrat on fire, the three classmates sat for their Alim examination.
Nusrat could not appear in the exam as she was set on fire just before the exam began.
Of the 16 accused, eight were named in the case lodged by the victim’s brother Mahmudul Hasan Noman and the names of eight others surfaced during the investigation, he said.
Majumder said that the accused were interrogated on remand, 12 of them admitted their roles in the murder in the confessional statements the made in the court.
The accused include SM Siraj-ud-Doula, 57, Nur Uddin, 20, Shahadot Hossain Shamim, 20, Maksud Alam alias Maksud Councillor, 50, Saifur Rahman Mohammad Jobayer, 21, Jabed Hossain alias Sakhawat Hossain, 19, Hafez Abdul Kader, 25, Absar Uddin, 33, Kamrunnahar Moni, 19, Umme Sultana alias Popy alias Tuhin alias Champa alias Shampa, 19, Abdur Rahim Sharif, 20, Iftekhar Uddin Rana, 22, Imran Hossain alias Mamun, 22, Mohammad Shamim, 22, Ruhul Amin, 55 and Mahiuddin Shakil, 20.
Immediately after setting Nusrat on fire in cool blood on April 6, Jabed, Popy and Moni sat for their Alim examination.
The PBI chief said that out of 92 prosecution witnesses, seven already testified in the court.
On March 27, Nusrat was sexually assaulted by principal Siraj in his office room.
Siraj was arrested after Nusrat’s mother filed a case with the Sonagazi police station.
On April 6, when Nusrat went to the madrassah to sit for her Alim examination, five people, accomplices of principal Siraj, wearing burkas and gloves requested Nusrat to go to the roof of the madrassah to rescue her closest friend providing the wrong information that she was being lynched.
Being misled, as Nusrat went to the roof to rescue her friend, the five accused poured kerosene on her and set her on fire.
Nusrat was brought to the Burn Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital where she died at the Intensive Care Unit on April 10.
Nusrat’s death sparked countrywide protests.
On Monday, the Cyber Tribunal in Dhaka issued a warrant to arrest suspended Sonagazi police station officer-in-charge Mouazzem Hossain for recording the video of sexual assault victim Nusrat while interrogating her and posting the video on the YouTube to humiliate her.
PBI investigated the OC’s cybercrime of video recording her at his office on March 27 without her consent and posting the video on April 8 on the YouTube.
The video went viral drawing nationwide protests against the OC’s cybercrime.
On April 10, OC Mouazzem was withdrawn from the Sonagazi police station and attached to Rangpur range of police after Nusrat’s family complained that he was not cooperating with them. He was suspended on May 8 for his negligence in dealing with Nusrat’s murder case.
Feni superintendent of police SM Jahangir Alam Sarkar was also withdrawn for negligence in dealing with the case while two officers of Sonagazi police station — sub-inspectors Md Yusuf and Iqbal Ahammed — were attached to the office of the deputy inspector general of police in Khulna and Khagrachari police lines respectively.