A man was sentenced to death by a Dhaka court on Monday for murdering six-year-old Saima Afrin after raping her in Wari a year ago. The death sentence was handed down to Harun-ur Rashid who was the lone accused in the charge-sheet. Judge Kazi Abdul Hannan of Dhaka Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal -1 handed down the verdict.
Abdus Salam, father of innocent Saima expressed his satisfaction soon after the verdict. He said, “Though I shall not get my daughter back but I am happy over the verdict.” He thanked all concerned including police for submitting the charge sheet within two months after the murder.
He hoped for the quickest implementation of the verdict. On July 5 in 2019 the body of the 7-year minor girl Saima was recovered from an under construction building at Bongaon under Wari Police Station in the capital. The victim was living with her family at the same building.
The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested Harun from his village home in Cumilla. Harun, a shopkeeper, was a relative of one of Saima’s neighbor and staying in the same building. In the police custody, the convicted criminal admitted that he lured Saima to the under construction building in the name of showing her the rooftop of the apartment. He then raped her there. He later strangled her to death fearing arrest.
Within just two months of the incident, DB Inspector Md Arzun, the investigation officer of the case, submitted a charge sheet against Harun. The tribunal framed charges against the accused in the case on January 2 in 2020. The accused in his statement confessed to his crime and the court later sent him to jail. The verdict came after eight months of the gruesome killing of Saima, which sparked protests in the social media.
