The High Court on Monday upheld the death sentences of two convicts in the 2019 murder of madrasa student Nusrat Jahan Rafi in Feni’s Sonagazi, while four others were sentenced to life imprisonment and 10 were acquitted.
A bench of Justice Bhishmadev Chakraborty and Justice KM Rasheduzzaman Raja delivered the verdict after hearing death references, appeals and jail appeals filed by the accused.
The two convicts facing the death penalty are Siraj Ud Doula, the then-principal of Sonagazi Islamia Fazil (Degree) Madrasa, and Shahadat Hossain Shamim.
The case drew widespread attention after Nusrat was set on fire on the madrasa rooftop on April 6, 2019. She died four days later, on April 10, while receiving treatment at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
According to the case documents, Siraj Ud Doula had called Nusrat to his office on March 27 and sexually harassed her.
After she refused to withdraw the case filed against him, she was taken to the madrasa rooftop, where her hands and feet were tied before kerosene was poured over her body and she was set on fire.
Nusrat’s elder brother, Mahmudul Hasan Noman, filed a case with Sonagazi police following the attack.
The case was later turned into a murder case.
On October 24, 2019, the Feni Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal sentenced all 16 accused, including the suspended madrasa principal Siraj Ud Doula, to death.
The High Court`s latest verdict now upholds the death sentences for two of the convicts, changes the sentences of four others to life imprisonment and acquits the remaining 10.
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