DHAKA, Nov 15, 2023 (BSS) - The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) today commuted death sentence of two convicts to life imprisonment in a case lodged over rape and subsequent murder of a child in Mothbaria upazila of Pirojpur.

A four-member apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan pronounced the judgment after holding hearing on an appeal filed against a High Court judgment in the case.

The apex court also fined the two convicts Md Mehedi Hasan Swapan and Sumon Jomaddar Taka 10,000 each, in default to suffer rigorous imprisonment for six months more.

Deputy attorney general Sarwar Hossain Bappi and assistant attorney general Mohammad Saiful Alam took part in the hearing for the state, while Advocate Helal Uddin Mollah and Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir argued for the two convicts.

The third-grader victim went missing on October 5, 2014, after taking her cattle for grazing on her school field. Her mutilated body was recovered the next day on a field beside her house. Police later discovered that the victim, 10, was brutally raped before killing.

Police on suspicion detained her cousin Swapan and his friend Sumon and sent them to court. There the two accused confessed to luring her to nearby field promising to show her an Indian civet, subsequently raping and killing her on fear of getting caught.

Pirojpur Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-1 on January 31, 2016, convicted and sentenced the two accused to death. The High Court, however, after holding hearing on the jail appeals and death reference, acquitted them on June 30, 2021, making the state to appeal against its judgment.