Journo Mithu murder: HC upholds death for 3 muggers

The High Court today upheld a trial court verdict that sentenced three muggers to death for killing Shafiqul Islam alias Mithu, senior videographer of private TV channel ATN Bangla, in 2010.

The convicts are Md Sujan, Md Ratan and Md Raju.

Mithu, 40, was found dead at Mirpur-Uttara embankment in Rustampur, on the outskirts of Dhaka, on May 9, 2010.

The HC bench of Justice Bhabani Prasad Singha and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah came up with the verdict after accepting the death reference and dismissing the appeals of the convicts challenging the lower court judgement.

If a lower court sentences any person to death in a case, its judgment is examined by the HC through hearing arguments for confirmation of the death sentence.

Today, the HC upheld the death sentence of the three convicts as their confessional statements corroborated with each other, Deputy Attorney General Bashir Ahmed told The Daily Star.

A Dhaka court on February 23, 2013 sentenced muggers Sujan, Ratan and Raju to death for killing Shafiqul Islam.

According to the prosecution, Mithu, a resident of Madhyapara, fell victim to muggers while returning home by a rented microbus from his office at Karwan Bazar on May 8, 2010. The muggers boarded the vehicle in guise of passengers.

After the muggers discovered Mithu’s identity, they took him somewhere else, strangled him and dumped his body near the embankment.

Advocate Anwarul Islam and Advocate Jahangir Alam appeared for the convicts.