Dhaka: A court on Monday charged 10 people and issued arrest warrants against three fugitives in the brutal killing of a 13-year-old Bangladeshi boy that triggered a nationwide outrage after a video of him being traumatised went viral.
Sylhet Metropolitan Magistrate Shahedul Karim, after accepting the police charge sheet accusing 13 people of murder, ordered to confiscate the properties of the three accused, one of whom has been detained in Saudi Arabia waiting repatriation.
"The magistrate issued the arrest warrant against the three as the 10 others are already in custody to face the trial in person," a police officer told PTI over phone.
The court has fixed August 13 for the indictment hearing, ordering that the fugitives would be tried in absentia if they did not surrender or could be arrested by that time, he said.
Ten men are behind bars after being arrested with the help of local residents, who were said to have caught some of the attackers when they tried to dump the body.
The charges in the indictment include murder or helping the alleged attackers. Defendants convicted of murder could face the maximum sentence of death penalty.
Kamrul, who is the prime accused in the case, fled to Saudi Arabia after allegedly committing the crime along with his accomplices.
The boy, Samiul Islam Rajon Rajon, was tortured and hacked to death by a group of persons over a false allegation of stealing a bicycle in the northeastern city of Sylhet on July 8. Following a police probe, the allegation was found untrue.
The autopsy report said Rajon died of brain hemorrhage. The doctors found 64 injury marks in his body as the initial evidence suggested the boy was tortured for nearly four hours until he breathed his last.
The accused filmed the entire incident of thrashing the boy using a mobile phone camera and uploaded it on internet which went viral.
The chilling 28-minute video in which the boy is seen crying and pleading to the attackers not to beat him stunned the nation.
From the video, it appeared that there were five to six men who took part in the barbaric torture of the boy.
