Rupa rape-murder case verdict Feb 12

Staff Correspondent, Tangail: A court in Tangail set February 12 to pronounce the verdict in a case filed over the sensational murder of Zakia Sultana Rupa, a law student and multinational company employee, after gang rape in a running bus in the district’s Madhupur area.

The court of Abul Mansur Miah, acting judge of Tangail Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal, came up with the date after closing arguments of both sides.

Earlier on October 25, 2017, the court accepted a charge sheet submitted against five accused in a case filed over the murder of Zakia Sultana Rupa. Judge Md Abdul Mannan of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal of Tangail accepted the charge sheet.

Police on October 15 framed charges against the five accused in the case filed over the Rupa murder. Inspector Kaiyum Khan Siddiqui, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the charge-sheet to the Judicial Magistrate Court in Tangail.

The charge-sheeted accused are bus driver Habibur, 45, its supervisor Safar Ali, 45, and helpers Shamim, 26, Akram, 35 and Jahangir, 19.

All the five accused are now in jail.

Rupa, 27, was murdered after gang rape in the running bus while returning to Mymensingh from Bogra on August 25

Police recovered the bloodstained body from Panchmail area of Madhupur upazila on that night.

Following post-mortem, she was buried at the town central graveyard as unclaimed body. Later, victim's relatives identified her seeing her photograph.

On August 28, police arrested the five accused from Mymensingh over the murder of Rupa.

Police on August 31 exhumed the body of Rupa and handed it over to her family for burial in a proper manner.

Rupa, who completed her Masters from Bogra Azizul Haque College, was studying law at Dhaka Ideal Law College. She was working at Unilever Bangladesh Limited at its Sherpur branch.


risingbd/Dhaka/Feb 5, 2018/Shahriar Sifat/AI