The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Chittagong

Five BCL activists, four in absentia, were yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment for sensational murder of a rival within the party in the city eight years ago.

Rupak Dev was handed down the punishment while four other convicts Didarul Alam Dider, Saifuddin, Ayub and Prajjut Rakhsit remained fugitive.

The court also fined the convicts Tk 20,000 each, in default, to suffer two years more rigorous imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, the accused abducted Abdus Sattar, Joint Secretary of BCL Jamalkhan ward unit from a shop at CDA Market in the city's Kazir Deury on October 5, 1997 following intra-party conflict.

Police recovered the bullet-riddled body of Sattar from Dhebar Par of Lalkhan Bazar on the following day.