A Patuakhali court has sentenced three defendants to prison terms over the gang-rape of the daughter of a “July martyr” from Dumki upazila, imposing 13-year terms on two of the youths and 10 years on a third. 

Judge Nilufar Shirin of the Patuakhali Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal delivered the verdict in the presence of the accused at around 11am on Wednesday (October 22). 

Besides, two of the defendants received a further three years’ imprisonment each under the Pornography Control Act. 

The court announced the judgment after testimony from 16 witnesses and closing arguments. 

According to the case file and related accounts, the assault occurred on March 18 this year in Rajganj village, Pangashia union, Dumki upazila, as the young woman was returning from her grandparents’ home. 

She filed a complaint at Dumki police station on March 19, and investigators later submitted a charge sheet to the tribunal. 

On April 26—one month and eight days after the attack—her body was recovered hanging from a rented apartment in Dhaka’s Shekhertek area. 

SMS/