Manikganj: The court awarded death sentence to two persons and life imprisonment to his daughter and daughter’s lover in the case of murder of Mahmuda Akhtar (45) in Dakshin Seota area of Manikganj district town.
On Wednesday (November 8) at around 11 am, Manikganj District and Sessions Judge Court Judge Jayashree Samddar gave this verdict in the presence of the defendants.
Those sentenced to death are – the son of Abdul Barek of South Keraniganj Jindapir area of Dhaka. Rakib Hossain (24) and Nilphamari District Jaldhaka Upazila East Golmonda area Md. Mahfuzar Rahman (20).
And the life sentences are victim’s daughter Zulekha Akhter Jyoti (19) and Jyoti’s lover Md. of Zindapir area of South Keraniganj, Dhaka. Shafiur Rahman Naeem (25).
The court acquitted Nur Hossain, son of Abdul Bhasani of East Golmonda area of Jaldhaka upazila, as the other accused in the case was not proved.
According to the statement of the case, on January 22, 2020, around 6:30 am, the victim’s husband, Zahirul Islam, left the house for walking and shopping. After returning home from the market around 8:30 in the morning, daughter Jyoti opened the gate of the house. Then when the girl asked where her mother was, she said that her mother was cooking.
Then Zahirul went to feed the pet pigeons on the fifth floor of the house. Returning from there, seeing Jyoti crying in front of the room, he wants to know the reason of crying. While Jyoti was talking randomly, Zahirul went to their bedroom and found his wife Mahmuda plastered. After calling for a while, getting no response, he went closer and saw that Mahmuda’s tongue was sticking out and there was blood in his nose. At that time, the tenants of the neighboring rooms came to his screams. In this situation Mahmuda was rescued and taken to Manikganj District Hospital where the doctor declared him dead.
Zahirul filed a case in this incident. After the investigation of the case, on May 31, 2020, the Deputy Inspector (SI) of Manikganj Sadar Police Station. Shamim Al Mamun filed a charge sheet against five people including the victim’s daughter Jyoti and her boyfriend.
Out of total 25 witnesses in the case, 21 testified. After the hearing of the case, the judge gave this verdict on Wednesday as the allegations were proved.
In the investigation report given by the investigating officer of the case, it is mentioned that because Zulekha Akhter Jyoti was a bit stubborn and reckless, the Zahirul-Mahmuda couple married her to Maruf of Golakanda village of Dhamrai Upazila of Dhaka about three months before the incident. After two years of marriage, he fell in love with Naeem through Facebook. At one point they got involved in a physical relationship. Then in November 2019, when Jyoti divorced her husband, Jyoti moved to her father’s house in Manikganj. After that Naeem occasionally had illicit intercourse with Jyoti in that house, Jyoti was disciplined by her mother. And Mahmuda wanted to marry Jyoti elsewhere. Enraged by this, Jyoti plans to kill her mother with the help of Naeem. According to that plan, Naeem fixed two people for one and a half lakh taka. In the afternoon before the incident, three people including Naeem went to Jyoti’s room and hid. On the morning of the incident, when Jyoti’s father went out for a walk, all of them including Jyoti went to Mahmuda’s room and saw her working on the sewing machine. When Mahmuda tried to scream seeing strangers with Jyoti, Jyoti stood in front of the door and the other three strangled Mahmuda to death and left the body on the bed, covered it with a sheet and fled.
Aminul Haque Akbar was the lawyer for the accused and Abdus Salam, the public prosecutor of Manikganj Judge Court, was the lawyer for the state.
Bangladesh Time: 1345 hours, November 8, 2023
SI
