Tangail: A Tangail court handed down death sentence to four people while 7 years of imprisonment to another in a case filed over the murder of law student Zakia Sultana Rupa after gang rape in a running bus on 25 August 2017.

Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal acting Judge Abul Monsur Mia delivered the verdict on Monday morning.

Earlier, on 5 February, the judge fixed the date after closing arguments of both sides.

The condemned convicted people are – bus driver Habibur and helpers Shamim, Akram and Jahangir.

Besides, bus supervisor Safar Ali was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and fined TK one lakh.

According to prosecution, Rupa, 27, was murdered after gang rape in the running bus while returning to Mymensingh from Bogra.

Police recovered her bloodstained body from Panchmail area of Madhupur upazila on that night.

Following post-mortem, she was buried at the town central graveyard as unclaimed body. Later, victim’s relatives identified her seeing her photograph.

On August 28, police arrested the five accused from Mymensingh in this connection.

On August 31, police exhumed the body of Rupa and handed it over to her family for burial in a proper manner.

On October 25 last, the court accepted chargesheet against the accused—bus driver Habibur, its supervisor Safar Ali, and helpers Shamim, Akram and Jahangir—in the case.

On January 23, the court concluded the recording of depositions of witnesses in the case when 27 witnesses out of total 32 testified before the court.