A Dhaka court has judged Oishee Rahman guilty of murdering her parents
and sentenced her to death. The verdict delivered by Judge Sayed Ahmed of
Dhaka’s Third Speedy Trial Tribunal also found the teenage girl’s friend
Mizanur Rahman Rony guilty of abetment and handed him a sentence of two years’
rigorous imprisonment.
A fine of Tk 5,000 was also clamped on Rony and failure to pay will have
him spend another month in jail. The court acquitted Asaduzzaman Jony, another
friend of Oishee, who also faced charges of abetment in the crime.
Police Inspector Mahfuzur Rahman and his wife Swapna Rahman were found
murdered in their apartment in Dhaka in 2013. Police pressed charges against
their daughter Oishee Rahman, her two friends and house help Khadija Akter Sumi
for murders at the couple’s residence.
The underage house help is however being tried before a juvenile court.
In its verdict, the court said that Oishee had ‘planned the murder well
ahead. She was in her senses while committing the murder. The defence claimed
she was a minor but failed to prove it. She was a drug addict but was normal
when she killed her parents,’ it said.
Oishee took shelter at the home of her friend Rony, who was found guilty
of abetment on Thursday and given a prison term.
Meanwhile, defence counsel Faruk Ahmed said that the defence would appeal
against the verdict.
The case was filed by the slain police officer’s brother Mashiur Rahman,
who had maintained that his niece was not involved in the killings. He kept to
his stance while testifying in court.
The bloodstained bodies of the Special Branch inspector and his wife were
found in a locked bathroom in their apartment on Aug 16, 2013.
The autopsy report said that Rahman and his wife died of stabbing, which
appeared to have been inflicted by amateurs.
Oishee along with the house help turned herself in at the police station
the next day. Her friends Rony and Jony were arrested later.
The DNA of Mahfuzur and his wife matched the samples taken from
Oishee’s bloodstained clothes and
ornaments, according to police.
Oishee mixed sleeping pills in the coffee consumed by her parents. As
they fell unconscious, she first stabbed her mother and then her father to
death.
Police had initially come under strong criticism for taking into remand
an 'underage' Oishee, whose school documents showed she was below 18.
Following an order by the court, an examination was subsequently
conducted to determine Oishee's actual age. Oishee was sent to Dhaka Medical
College and Hospital for physical examination. Doctors concluded that she was
nearly 19 years old and Sumi 11.
In March 2014, police submitted the charge sheet in court, according to
which Oishee had acted alone in killing her parents. The other three were
charged with abetment to murder. During interrogation, Oishee confessed to
killing her parents with the help of Sumi.
But she later pleaded for a retraction of her confession, claiming police had tortured and forced her into making the statement. The trial at a juvenile court of the underage house help Sumi is yet to be concluded.
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