A Bandarban Court has handed down death penalty to 10 persons for abducting and murdering three cattle traders.
Bandarban District and Sessions Judge Md Fazle Elahi Bhuiyan delivered the verdict in the six-year-old case on Monday.
The convicts are John Tripura, Kahim Tripura, Jasin Tripura, Jibon Tripura, George Tripura, Sunny Tripura, Salau Tripura, Senedra Tripura, Joseph Tripura and Shigram Tripura. They are all on the run.
In April 2016, Abu Bakkar, Nurul Afsar and Shahab Uddin, all natives of Alikadam, were killed in captivity by the convicts.
The unsuspecting traders were lured to the 28-km area of the Thanchi-Alikadam road by a phone call from John Tripura, who offered sell nine cattle for Tk 300,000, according to the case dossier.
Abu Bakkar and two of his associates, Afsar and Shahab Uddin, went there the next day to take a look at the livestock. Abu Bakkar later called his younger brother and told him to inform John about his willingness to buy the cattle.
But then, John asked for an additional Tk 50,000 to be sent to him via bKash. After the money was sent, his mobile phone became unreachable, reports bdnews24.com.
The next day, Abu Bakkar's brother, Abul Hashem, filed a general diary over the matter with Thanchi Police Station. Following his arrest later that day, John admitted that he and nine of his associates abducted the cattle traders and were holding them at a secret location.
Later, police, BGB and army personnel conducted a raid and recovered the bodies of the cattle traders.
Abul Hashem subsequently filed a case against 10 people with Thanchi Police Station.
The court sentenced the suspects to death after the charges against them were proved beyond any doubt, said Public Prosecutor Iqbal Karim.
