The Cumilla fourth Additional District and Sessions Judge on Sunday sentenced nine people to death and nine others to life-term imprisonment in a case filed over the killing of Juba League leader Jamal Uddin in 2016.
Judge Mohammad Jahangir Hossain pronounced the verdict and acquitted five others, saying that the allegations brought against them were not proved beyond doubt.
The condemned convicts are Md Ismail Hossain Bacchu, former chairman of Chauddagram鈥檚 Alkora union, Salauddin, Abdur Rahman, Mofizur Rahman Khandkar, Ziauddin Shimul, Zahid Bin Shuvo, Rezaul Karim Bablu, Md Riaz Uddin Miaji, and Md Amir Hossain. All are from the Kulasar village of Alkora union.
The life time convicts are Nurul Alam, Kofil Uddin, Nurunnabi Sujan, Iqbal Ahmed, Saiful Islam, Mahfuzur Rahman Khandkar, Mosharraf Hossain, Md Alauddin and Mohammad Ali Hossain of Kulasar village.
Only a life term convict out of the 18 convicts was present in the court during the delivery of the verdict, while the rest of the convicts are on the run, said public prosecutor Jahirul Haque Selim.
He also said that a total of 20 prosecution witnesses testified before the court in the case.
The acquitted five accused are Nazrul Islam, Shimul Azim Uddin, Anwar Hossain Sohel, Atiqur Rahman Nantu, and Yusuf Harun Mamun of the same village.
According to the case documents, former Alkora UP chairman Ismail Hossain Bacchu and the union鈥檚 Juba League president Jamal Uddin had been at loggerheads over establishing supremacy in the area.
On January 8, 2016, Jamal Uddin left home in a private car for Dhaka at around 8:00pm.
On his way to Dhaka, the accused, led by chairman Bacchu, stopped his car putting a barricade on the Padua road of Chauddagram on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway and shot and hacked Jamal Uddin to death.
Later, the victim鈥檚 elder sister, Zohra Begum, filed a murder case against 21 identified and some unidentified people with the Chauddagram police station over the incident.
