5 rapists get death penalty under amended law

A court has sentenced five people to death under the amended law after it found them guilty of gang-raping a madrasa girl in Bhuapur upazila of Tangail three years ago.

Tangail’s Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal Judge Khaleda Yasmin passed the order around 11am on Thursday.

This is the first verdict that have given death penalty to five people in a rape case after the government approved death penalty for rape.

The death row convicts are Sagor Chandra, Gopi Chandra Singh, Sujon Moni Rishi, Rajon and Sanjit.

According to the case statement, the girl first met Sagor Chandra over the phone. On January 15 in 2002, Sagor took the girl from Bhuapur to Rajon’s house in Madhupur. There, he pressured her to marry him. But when she rejected him, Sagor raped the girl and kept her confined there. On the night of January 17, the five accused gang-raped her and left her unconscious by the Bangshai River in Madhurpur.

The following morning, the girl’s parents rescued her and took her home. Later that day, the girl filed the case herself under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act with the Bhuapur police station.