Nur Hossain among 26 get death penaltyA court in Narayanganj on Monday awarded death penalty to 26 people including former councillor of Narayanganj City Corporation Nur Hossain and sacked RAB commanding officer Tareque Sayeed Mohammad in the sensational Narayanganj seven-murder case.

The other condemned convicts include sacked Rab-11 officials Maj Arif Hossain and Lt Commander M Masud Rana.

District and Sessions Judge court also sentenced nine others to different jail terms.

Judge Sayed Enayet Hossain handed down the verdict in presence of 23 convicts.

The judge started reading out the verdict in a crowded courtroom around 10am amid tight security in and around the court premises.

Nur Hossain, a former councillor of Narayanganj City Corporation; and three sacked Rapid Action Battalion-11 officials were among the 35 accused in the case.

bdnews24.com adds : On the afternoon of Apr 27, 2014, councillor Nazrul and five of his associates were abducted from their car on Dhaka-Narayanganj Link Road.

Around the same time and from the same location, senior lawyer Chandan and his chauffer, who were in another car, were kidnapped.

Three days later, their bloated bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya River.

From the very beginning, the slain councillor’s family claimed that Nur Hossain had paid Tk 60 million to senior officers of the local RAB unit to carry out the murders.

Both Nazrul and Nur Hossain belonged to the ruling Awami League.

After the investigation, which took almost a year, police pressed charges against 35 persons, including Nur Hossain, three senior officers of the Narayanganj-based RAB battalion -- Tarek Sayeed, Arif Hossain and MM Rana.

Nur Hossain had fled immediately after the killings, but was detained in India’s Kolkata and brought back to Bangladesh 17 months later.

The victims' families said that they were satisfied with the verdict.

"But we want the verdict to be implemented as soon as possible and hope that the High Court will uphold it," the slain councilor's wife Selina Islam Beauty told reporters.

Murdered lawyer Chandan's family agreed.

"We want quick execution of the verdict," daughter Sushmita Sarkar said.

Lawyer Shakhawat Hossain, who represented Chandan's family, also said he was happy with the verdict, but added, "It would have been better if all of the 35 defendants had been sentenced to death."