Abrar Murder: 5 Get Life, 20 Face Death Penalty
- Update Time : 06:20:08 am, Sunday, 16 March 2025
- / 562 Time View
The High Court has upheld the trial court’s verdict in the widely discussed murder case of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) student Abrar Fahad. As a result, the death penalty for 20 convicts and life imprisonment for five others remain in place.
On Sunday, March 16, the verdict was delivered by the High Court bench of Justice A.K.M. Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayetur Rahman.
Abrar Fahad, a student of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, resided in room 1011 of BUET’s Sher-e-Bangla Hall. On the night of October 6, 2019, he was summoned from his room and brutally beaten to death. His body was discovered in the dormitory’s stairway corridor around 3 a.m.
Following the incident, Abrar’s father filed a murder case at Chawkbazar Police Station. After an investigation, police submitted a charge sheet against 25 BUET students on November 13, 2019. The trial court formally indicted them on September 15, 2020.
On December 8, 2021, the Dhaka trial court sentenced 20 individuals to death and five others to life imprisonment. The case was then forwarded to the High Court for mandatory death sentence confirmation (death reference), reaching the relevant section on January 6, 2022.
The convicted individuals, through prison authorities, filed jail appeals challenging the verdict. These appeals were taken up for hearing by the High Court on January 26, 2022, alongside regular appeals filed by the convicted individuals. The hearings on the death reference, jail appeals, and regular appeals were conducted together.
On November 28 last year, the prosecution began presenting the case summary (paper book) in court. Following this, a fresh hearing commenced on February 10, continuing almost daily except for one non-working day. The final hearing concluded on February 24, after which the case was reserved for judgment.
Meanwhile, on August 6 last year, one of the death-row convicts, Muntasir Al Jemi, escaped from Gazipur’s high-security central prison by breaking through a wall. The prison authorities confirmed his escape in a press release on February 25.
