Fifteen-year-old Shazneen, the youngest daughter of Latifur Rahman, chairman of Transcom Limited, was raped and killed at their Gulshan residence on the night of April 23, 1998.

The seventh accused, guard Humayun Kabir, died in custody. The convicts, condemned to death, are Shahidul Islam alias Shahid, a domestic help, Syed Sajjad Mainuddin Hasan alias Azad, a contractor, Badal, the contractor's assistant, Shaniram Mandal, a carpenter, and Estema Khatun Minu and Parvin, maids.

Kazi Rahamat Ullah, judge of the Second Special Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression, Dhaka, pronounced the 122-page judgement in a crowded and highly policed courtroom.

The judge observed: The killing went beyond the realm of fiction. It appears reality has surpassed imagination. It was like snatching of a child from her loving mother.

The convicts can appeal to the High Court Division against the judgement within seven days from the date of the delivery of the verdict.

The six accused now in jail custody were taken to the court 20 minutes before the pronouncement of the judgement.

The judge took his seat at 1:00pm and read out important parts of the verdict in 40 minutes. The convicts remained silent all through and none of them commented on the judgement.

The principal accused, Shahid, was found guilty under Section 6(2) (rape with murder) of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 1995, and the five others were found guilty under sections 6(2) and 14 (rape with murder and instigation) of the same act.

The judge addressed three points in the judgement: 1. Whether Shahid had raped and killed the victim after being instigated by Hasan for financial benefits. 2. Whether Hasan had instigated Shahid and others into committing the crimes. 3. Whether the prosecution was able to prove charges against the accused.

The judge came to the conclusion that Shahid had raped and killed Shazneen with the help of other accused after being instigated by Hasan. Hasan instigated Shahid and four others to rape and kill her and the prosecution was able to prove the charges against all the accused beyond doubt.

The judge said the prosecution had no eyewitnesses but was able to prove the charges on the basis of circumstantial evidence, confessional statements of the accused and statements of the 22 prosecution witnesses in the case.

At about 3:30pm on April 1, 1998, Hasan (the contractor employed for renovations to the residence of Latifur Rahman) had entered Shazneen's bedroom and asked her to show him the defective mirror in the bathroom she had earlier complained about. As she entered the bathroom, Hasan grabbed her with an ill motive. Shazneen pushed him aside and warned that she would report it to her parents. Hasan became angry and left the room.

As Hasan came to know that Shazneen would report the April 1 incident to her parents, he plotted to take revenge by killing her and chose April 23, the day of a party hosted by Rahman.

Hasan lured some of the domestic helps with an offer of a hefty amount of money as reward for their roles in the plot to kill Shazneen, a class IX student of Scholastica School.

After the incident, Shahid said that at the instigation of Hasan, he raped Shazneen with the help of Humayun, Shaniram, Badal, Minu and Parvin.

During trial, he denied what he had said in earlier statements. Again, he changed his statement for the second time during defence and confessed to having killed Shazneen but denied raping her. It was another strategy of instigator Hasan, the judge said.

The judgement said Shahid raped Shazneen not only out of lust, but also out of desire for financial benefits and on Hasan's instructions.

On the night of the incident, Shazneen's paternal uncle Atiqur Rahman Masum tried to communicate with Hasan by telephone twice but failed as the contractor was sleeping. Hasan did not come to Shazneen's Gulshan residence on the night and nor did he attend her namaz-e-janaza.

On the basis of relevant documents and recorded evidence, it was proved that Hasan was the mastermind behind the rape and killing of the victim, the judge further said.

Shazneen's body bore 25 marks of injury and there were bruises in her private parts, so it was proved that the victim was raped before being killed, the judgement added.

Shahid, Humayun, Minu and Parvin gave confessional statements before magistrates on different dates.

Soon after the incident, Minu and Parvin gave contradictory versions of the killing to some of the party guests on the night of April 23, 1998.

Parvin first said she saw Shahid fleeing Shazneen's room with a knife in hand. Then she said she saw a man sitting on Shazneen's body, but again said she did not see anything.

The judge said the conflicting versions of the incident strengthened the charges against the accused.

During trial, Latifur Rahman, his daughters Simeen Hossain, Shazhreh Haq Shehzi, son-in-law Arshadul Haq, cousin Atiqur Rahman Masum and friends Mahbubur Rahman, Ahmed Shafi Chowdhury and Hossain Akther Chowdhury, and domestic helps Moslem Hawlader and Sufia Begum gave their depositions as prosecution witnesses.

The judge said the witnesses had no enmity with the accused, so their statements could be taken into the cognisance for trial.

Besides, a fingerprint expert, a footprint expert, first Investigation Officer Sub-Inspector Shamsul Haq, who prepared the inquest report, and a doctor who prepared the postmortem report, also gave depositions and were cross-examined.

The judgement came five years, four months and 10 days after the brutal killing and the trial spanned 127 workdays.

Rahman, a leading industrialist, filed a murder case with Gulshan Police Station against Shahid shortly after the killing of his daughter.

After scrutinising the inquest report, postmortem report and others relevant papers, Investigation Officer Mojibur Rahman, assistant superintendent of CID (Criminal Investigation Department), found that Shazneen was raped before being murdered.

He filed a rape case under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act with Gulshan Police Station on September 4, 1998, against Shahid, Hasan, Badal, Shaniram, Humayun, Minu and Parvin.

Mojibur, also investigation officer of the rape case, submitted a chargesheet against Shahid and five others on December 12, 1998, showing 74 people as prosecution witnesses. The investigation officer recovered 27 items of evidence (alamat) from Shazneen's home during investigation.

Both the prosecution and the defence completed their arguments on August 24 this year. The tribunal recorded statements of 22 out of the 74 prosecution witnesses and framed charges against the six accused on April 13, 1999.

After the charges were framed, defence lawyers filed a criminal appeal with the High Court (HC) Division seeking a stay on charge framing.

After hearing, the HC stayed proceedings of the case on August 25, 1999 and vacated the stay order on November 1, 1999. The court directed the special tribunal to frame charges against the accused, and charges were framed on May 28, 2000.

The HC also stayed the proceedings of the Shazneen murder case, pending with the First Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court, Dhaka until disposal of the Shazneen rape case.

Special public prosecutors (PPs) ABM Sharfuddin Khan Mukul, Mahbub Ahmed, Arfanuddin Khan and Saima Khanam, and assistant PPs Anisur Rahman and Golam Rahman, and advocates Mohammad Ali Hossain, Taijuddin Ahmed, Delwar Hossain, Shahidul Islam Prince, Morjina Raihan, Abul Bashar and Tushar Kanti Roy appeared for the state.

Advocates Mosharraf Hossain Kazal, Mizanur Rahman and MA Kamrul Hasan Khan Aslam defended the accused.

The BNP-led four-party alliance, coming to power, gave importance to the case and reviewed it under a monitoring cell of the home ministry for its quick disposal.