Oishee given death penalty

A Dhaka court yesterday found Oishee Rahman guilty of killing her parents and sentenced her to death.

Oishee's friend Mizanur Rahman Roni was awarded two years' rigorous imprisonment for giving her shelter.

However, her other friend Asaduzzaman Johnny was acquitted of the charge of assisting her in murdering her father Mahfuzur Rahman, inspector of Special Branch of Police, and mother Swapna Rahman more than two years ago. 

Oishee killed her parents in cold blood and somebody “supported” her in committing the murders. It was a heinous crime and a pre-planned murder, the court said in the judgment.

It gave Oishee the death penalty on two counts of murder, and said her execution would be carried out if the High Court upholds the verdict.

She planned to kill only her mother. But she murdered her father as well, thinking he would not “tolerate” it, said the court.

Oishee had claimed before the court that she was in a drunken stupor when she killed her parents. But such an excuse was unacceptable and was rejected, it added.

Oishee was an “adult” when she killed her parents, and there was no scope for considering her as a minor, Judge Md Sayeed Ahmed of Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-3 said while pronouncing the verdict in a packed courtroom around 12:10pm.

“If such an offender is given minor punishment instead of the death penalty, such crimes will increase,” said the judge.  

Hearing the verdict, Oishee broke down in tears, and then covered her face with a scarf. As journalists approached her at the courtroom, she refused to talk.

The court said she could file an appeal with the HC within 30 days after receiving a copy of the judgment.

It also fined her Tk 20,000, in default of which she has to spend a year in jail. Her friend Roni was fined Tk 5,000. He will have to serve one more month in prison if he fails to pay the fine.

On August 16, 2013, the bodies of Mahfuzur and his wife Swapna were recovered from their Chamelibagh house in the capital.

Oishee, who was then an O-level student, turned herself in to Paltan police the following day.

She told police that she killed her parents as they went too far in disciplining her.

On August 24, 2013, she confessed to a magistrate that she alone killed her parents and their domestic help Khadiza Akhter Sumi helped her hide the bodies. Later, she retracted her confessional statement, saying she was mentally and physically tortured, and was forced to make a confession.  

Police drew flak for taking into remand an “underage” Oishee, whose school documents showed she was below 18.

Following a court order, an examination was conducted to determine Oishee's actual age.

She was sent to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital for physical examination. Doctors there concluded that she was around 19 years of age.

On March 9 last year, police pressed charges against Oishee, Johnny, Roni and 11-year-old domestic help Sumi in the case.

According to the charge sheet, Oishee alone killed her parents, Johnny instigated the murders and Roni gave her shelter after the incident. Sumi was accused of assisting Oishee in hiding the bodies.

It also said the couple had been doped before they were killed.

The trial of child domestic help Sumi, now on bail, is pending with a juvenile court, the First Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court in Dhaka.