Staff Reporter:
A special tribunal in Dhaka has set to deliver its verdict today in the sensational rape and murder case of second-grade student Ramisa Akter, with the prosecution seeking the death penalty for the two accused, Sohel Rana and his wife Swapna Akter.
Judge Masrur Salekin of the Dhaka Metropolitan Children’s Violence Suppression Tribunal on June 4 set today for pronouncing the judgment, after both the prosecution and defence concluded their arguments on that day.
“We expect the highest punishment, the death penalty, for Sohel Rana and his wife Swapna Akter. It is our expectation that the learned tribunal, in its wisdom, will handed the maximum punishment of death to the accused,” Special Public Prosecutor Azizur Rahman Dulu told yesterday.
State-appointed defence counsel Advocate Musa Kalimullah said they expect justice.
Ramisa, a Class-II student of Popular Model High School, was allegedly raped and beheaded by her neighbour Sohel Rana at his flat in the Millat Camp area of Pallabi on May 19.
Accused Swapna Akter and Sohel Rana were arrested the same day.
Ramisa’s father filed the case the following day.
On May 23, the government appointed Advocate Azizur Rahman Dulu as special public prosecutor to conduct the trial on behalf of the state before the Dhaka Metropolitan Children’s Violence Suppression Tribunal, a newly constituted court dealing exclusively with cases of violence against children.
Police submitted a charge sheet on May 24 against alleged rapist and killer Sohel Rana and his wife and alleged accomplice Swapna Akter.
On the same day, the government appointed Advocate Musa Kalimullah as state defence counsel to rep-resent the accused before the tribunal.
The tribunal framed charges in the case on June 1 and completed recording the depositions of prosecu-tion witnesses (PWs) in a single day on June 2. Sixteen of the 18 listed PWs testified and were subse-quently cross-examined by the defence on the same day.
On June 3, the two accused, Sohel Rana and his wife Swapna Akter, made their self-defence statements before the court, where Sohel Rana sought mercy, while Swapna Akter claimed complete innocence and prayed for justice.
The legal arguments in the case were held on June 4, when the prosecution sought the maximum pun-ishment for both accused.
