Nusrat Murder Court accepts charges against 16, relieves five

Feni Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal on Monday accepted the charges against 16 detained accused in the hair raising case of setting fire to madrassah student Nusrat Jahan Rafi, 18, causing her death in early April.

Tribunal judge Md Mamunur Rashid relieved five other detained accused from the charges as they were not listed in the charge sheet.

On June 20 the court would hear the charges.

On May 29, the Police Bureau of Investigation inspector and investigation officer of the case Md Shah Alam pressed the charges against the accused in the court of senior judicial magistrate Md Zakir Hossain.

On May 30, judicial magistrate Zakir forwarded the case to the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal, Feni for trial.

The accused include Sonagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrassah principal and Nusrat’s abuser SM Siraj-ud-Doula, 57, local Awami League leaders Ruhul Amin, 55, and Maksud Alam alias Maksud Councillor, 50, Nusrat’s classmates and Alim examinees Jabed Hossain alias Sakhawat Hossain, 19, Kamrunnahar Moni, 19 and Umme Sultana alias Popy alias Tuhin alias Champa alias Shampa, 19, Nur Uddin, 20, Shahadot Hossain Shamim, 20, Saifur Rahman Mohammad Jobayer, 21, Hafez Abdul Kader, 25, Absar Uddin, 33, Abdur Rahim Sharif, 20, Iftekhar Uddin Rana, 22, Imran Hossain alias Mamun, 22, Mohammad Shamim, 22, and Mahiuddin Shakil, 20.

Nur Hossain, Alauddin, Kefayet Ullah Jony, Saidul and Ariful Islam were relieved of the charges.

Feni court police inspector Md Golam Jilani told New Age that all the 21 people arrested in the case of killing Nusrat were produced in the tribunal in the afternoon amid tight security.

The plaintiff’s lawyer Shahjahan Saju said that seven of the charge sheeted accused including AL leader Maksud sought bail in the case but the court rejected their pleas and sent all the 16 charge sheeted accused to jail.

The plaintiff of the case and Nusrat’s elder brother Abdullah Al Noman told New Age that he had now no objection about the charge sheet.

He, however, demanded immediate arrest of the then Sonagazi police station officer-in-charge Mouazzem Hossain for harassing his sister mentally.

PBI said  that on April 6, on principal Siraj’s orders, five  burqa clad persons wearing gloves directly participated the mission of setting Nusrat on fire  on the roof of a building of the madrassah, also an Alim examination centre, as the victim refused to withdraw the case against Siraj.

Two of the assailants were females and Nusrat’s classmates.

Nusrat, herself an Alim examinee, could not appear in the exam as she was burnt minutes before the exam began.

Her classmates who took part in the mission to murder Nusrat sat for the examination after committing the crime.

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 investigations, PBI said.

PBI said, that 12 of them admitted their roles in the murder in the confessional statements they had made 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.

After she was burnt on April 6, she was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where she died on April 10.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net