Online Desk ; The High Court on Sunday acquitted all seven convicts questioning the testimonies of a witness in a murder case filed in Pirojpur district in September 1998.
A lower court in Pirojpur district handed down the death sentences to four of the accused and the rest three life-term imprisonment in the murder case.
The HC bench of Justice Krishna Debnath and Justice ASM Abdul Mobin delivered the verdict after quashing the death references and accepting the appeals filed by the convicts who challenged the lower court verdict in the Badal Sarder murder case filed in Bhandaria upazila of Pirojpur district.
Advocates Fazlul Huq Khan Farid, Sheikh Ali Ahmed Khokon and Md Abdur Razzaque appeared on behalf of the convicts in the court, while Deputy Attorney General Shahin Ahmed Khan represented the state.
Later, Advocate Fazlul Huq Khan Farid said one of the convicts was in jail in another case at the time of the murder. But one of the witnesses testified about the involvement of the convict who was in jail in Badal Sarder murder.
“It indicates that the witness was fake. Taking it and several other matters into cognizance, the High Court decided to acquit all the convicts from the murder charge,” he said.
According to case details, Badal Sarder, son of Jalal Sardar at village Bhitabaria under Bhandaria upazila in Pirojpur district was hacked to death on September 1, 1998 in sequel to land disputes. Badal’s father later filed a murder case, seeking justice against the murder of his son.
In 2003, the case was shifted from the Pirojpur District and Sessions Judge Court to the Jhalakathi District and Sessions Judge Court at the directive of the High Court following an appeal by the defendants.
After the trial, SM Solaiman, judge of Jhalakathi District and Sessions Judge Court, delivered the verdict on July 1, 2015.
The accused sentenced to death were Shahid Sikder, Dulal Sikder, Badal Sikder, and Nizam Sikder of village Uttar Bhitabaria, while the life imprisonment to Salam Sardar, Harun Sikder, and Minu Sikder of Bhitabaria union parishad.
The lower court also acquitted six other accused.
Later, according to the rules, the death references of the murder convicts were sent to the High Court. After hearing on the death references, the High Court on Sunday acquitted all the convicts.
