BANGLADESH: 4 SENTENCED TO DEATH IN DRUGS CASE IN GOPALGANJ

November 16, 2022:

A Gopalganj court on 13 November 2022 has given death sentence to four people in a drugs scase.
Gopalganj Additional Sessions Judge Md Abbas Uddin passed the verdict.
The convicts are Batul alias Rabiul, 46, Sujan Sheikh, 41, Md  Rafiq Mridha, 39, and Zakir Sikder, 45.
Batul and Sujan Sheikh were present in the court premises during the verdict.
The other death row convicts Rafiq Mridha and Zakir Sikder are still absconding.
However, one other accused, Sheikh Zirullah, 40, has been acquitted.
Court Bench Assistant Md Mahbubur Rahman said that on 10 July 2011, Sona Begum and Sheikh Zirullah were arrested by the The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) with 30 bottles of phensedyl. The DB police conducted a second phase of the operation, during which Batul escaped in a boat to Golabaria beel.
When the DB police reached Golabaria, Batul and his accomplices ran away and dumped sacks of phensedyl into the water.
DB police recovered a total of 497 bottles of phensedyl and weapons from there.
On that day, DB Police SI Md Shahadat Hossain filed a case at Gopalganj police station accusing Batul, Sona Begum, Zirullah, Sujan Sheikh, Md Rafiq Mridha, and Zakir Sikdar.
Some days after filing the case, Sona Begum died.
The investigating officer of the case, SI Md Moazzem Hossain, submitted a charge sheet against the five accused in the court on 6 August 2011.
After receiving the evidence, the judge sentenced the four accused to death.