A Rajshahi court yesterday sentenced three youths to death by hanging for murdering their college friend, Nadimuzzaman Saad, with a plan to realise a Tk 5 crore ransom from his parents.
The three are Al Awal Quel, 20, and Suit Reja, 21, of Nachole of Chapainawabganj and Masud Ali Shawan, 19, of Tikapara in Rajshahi city.
Another friend of Saad, Kawsar Ahmed Anik, 20, of Tikapara, was sentenced to life in prison. The four were also fined Tk 10,000 each.
The Court of Rajshahi District and Session Judge Hossain Shahid Ahmed acquitted two others -- Rashedul Islam Bipu, 20, and Suit's girlfriend Isra Haque Oishi, 19.
The convicts tricked Saad, an HSC student at Rajshahi Model School and College, into coming to a private dormitory at Sheroil Mothpukur area in Rajshahi city on January 17 this year and drugged him with sleeping pills.
The next morning, the four killed him by slitting his throat.
Rapid Action Battalion recovered the body from a sewer of the dormitory on January 25 following confessional statements from Shawan and Anik.
A general diary filed by Saad's father Aminul Islam with Rajpara Police Station on January 19 was then recorded as a murder case.