Five to walk gallows for killing student in Rajshahi

Rajshahi, Oct 12:  A court here has sentenced five people to death for the murder of college student Raju Ahmed in the city's New Market area in 2010.
Division Speedy Trial Tribunal Judge Anup Kumar acquitted another nine suspects in his verdict on Tuesday.
The convicts who received the death penalty are Azizur Rahman Raju, Sazzad Hossain Saju, Md Rinku alias Boya, Ismail Hossain and Mahabur Rashid Rentu. The court fined them Tk 10,000 each as well.
Another suspect in the case died while the trial was ongoing. The remaining 14 were all in court when the verdict was read.
According to the case file, Raju's father Esar Uddin, a resident of Hasnipur village in Rajshahi's Bagmara Upazila, owned a jewellery shop in Madariganj market. He was involved in a land dispute with Rentu.Rentu demanded Tk 50,000 from the shop in 2010. After he was refused, a group of people, led by Rentu, vandalised the shop.
Raju filed a case over the incident. Facing threats from the suspects named in the case, Raju fled home and moved to a dormitory in Rajshahi city to live with a friend.
On March 15 in 2010, Rentu and his accomplices stabbed and killed Raju with knives. He was an HSC candidate at Rajshahi's Daokandi Degree College at the time.
Esar Uddin then filed a case, accusing 15 suspects of his son's murder.  The verdict in the case was finally handed down on Tuesday.