Rangpur Khadem murder: Death reference reaches HC

The death reference on the Rangpur Kaunia upazila Khadem Rahmat Ali murder case has reached the High Court for examining of the trial court verdict that sentenced seven members of the banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh to death.

Concerned officials of the Rangpur court recently brought the documents of the killing case, including the judgment, to the HC, Supreme Court’s Special Officer Barrister Md Saifur Rahman told The Daily Star today.

Now, the section concerned of the HC will prepare paper book of the case on approval of Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain of SC official said.

After the paper book is readied, the HC will hear the death reference and dispose of it, he added.

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.

The case documents and judgment reaches as death reference to the HC from the lower court in seven working days after the announcement of the verdict.

A special court of Rangpur on March 18 sentenced seven JMB members to death for killing Khadem Rahmat Ali in Rangpur's Kaunia upazila in November, 2015.

The court also acquitted six other JMB men as the prosecution failed to prove their involvement in the killing.

Rahmat Ali, an AL leader of Dhepamodhupur union in Kaunia upazila, and also a khadem (caretaker) of a mazar (shrine), was stabbed to death at Chaitamor in the upazila when he was returning home by riding his bicycle on the night of November 10, 2015.