Two Fugitive Muggers Handed Death Penalty Over Fatal 2005 Robbery

A metropolitan sessions court in Dhaka has sentenced two career criminals to death for the fatal stabbing of a young commuter during a violent street mugging near the Kallyanpur bus terminal. The landmark judicial decision concludes a complex legal saga that has moved through the metropolitan court system for over twenty-one years, shining a stark light on the structural delays that frequently afflict historic capital cases in the capital.

The final judgment was delivered on Sunday, 19 July, by Judge Mosaddek Minhaj, presiding over the Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court of Dhaka. In addition to the capital sentences, the court levied a punitive fine of 50,000 Taka against each of the condemned men. The individuals facing the gallows have been identified by court officials as Sohel Rana, widely known by his alias Kalu, and Nazim Uddin, alternatively identified in police registries as Nazim or Noju.

State representative and Additional Public Prosecutor Khalilur Rahman Khalil confirmed that both men were tried in absentia, having violated their bail conditions and vanished from public view years prior. To counter their evasion, the court has simultaneously dispatched death warrants alongside comprehensive arrest directives to law enforcement agencies across the country.

Judiciary Condemns Career Criminals for Cruel Attack

In handing down the maximum statutory penalty, the presiding judge highlighted the lengthy rap sheets of the accused, describing them as highly dangerous, habitual offenders. Evidence presented by the state prosecution verified that both convicts were actively tied to a string of independent indictments spanning the illegal possession of firearms, the transport of commercial explosives, and narcotics trafficking networks operating within the Mirpur zone.

The judicial record described the victim as a bright, university-educated young professional whose future was violently stolen in an act of unprovoked metropolitan street crime. The court emphasized that the exceptional savagery displayed by the attackers—who inflicted multiple, deep lacerations upon a defenceless pedestrian simply to secure a mobile handset and minor pocket money—demanded the most severe retributive measures available under the penal code.

The underlying tragedy commenced at approximately 4:15 am on the morning of 22 June 2005. The victim, Shafiqul Alam, known affectionately to his family as Shafiq, had arrived at the Kallyanpur transit hub following an overnight coach journey from Bogra via the SR Paribahan network. Upon collecting his luggage, Shafiq began navigating the poorly lit thoroughfares on foot, heading towards the residence of a close friend.

As he passed the entrance of the Asia Cinema Hall, a trio of armed muggers stepped out from the shadows to block his path. Brandishing large knives, the men demanded his valuables. When Shafiq instinctively moved to shield his personal property, the gang launched a frenzied assault, hacking at his limbs and torso before seizing his money and phone. Though passing commuters discovered the bleeding youth and coordinated his emergency transit to a local hospital, medical staff were unable to stabilize him, and he passed away during emergency surgery. The formal murder investigation was set in motion shortly after by a complaint lodged at the Mirpur Model Police Station by the victim’s grieving father, Mohammad Akbar Ali.

A Protracted Path to Ultimate Justice

The initial phase of the police inquiry moved swiftly, culminating in the high-profile arrest of Sohel Rana. Under interrogation, Rana provided a detailed, legally binding confessional statement before a judicial magistrate, identifying his accomplices and outlining the exact dynamics of the stabbing. Despite the gravity of the confession, the suspect later manipulated the legal system to secure temporary bail from the higher judiciary, subsequently severing all contact with his legal counsel and joining his co-accused as a permanent fugitive from justice.

The formal prosecution files were finalised on 5 April 2006, when the lead investigator, Inspector Mohammad Rezaul Karim of the Mirpur Model Police Station, submitted the official charge sheet to the metropolitan magistrate. The formal indictment of the suspects took place on 23 September 2006, opening the door to the evidentiary phase of the trial. Throughout the decades-long courtroom battle, state prosecutors successfully called nine key eyewitnesses and medical experts out of fourteen originally listed, constructing an airtight case through post-mortem analyses, forensic tracking, and the historic validity of the initial confessional documents.