The High Court (HC) today upheld the lower court judgment that sentenced 20 people to death and five more to life imprisonment in a case over brutal killing of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) student Abrar Fahad.
 
A High Court division bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain passed the verdict after hearing the convicts' death references and jail appeals.
 
The High Court on February 24, 2025, kept the judgment on CAV (court awaits verdict) as the legal arguments came to an end in the case on that day.

Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman, deputy attorney generals Md Jasim Sarker, Khandaker Bahar Rumi, Nur Mohammad Azmi, Russel Khandaker, assistant attorney generals Abdul Jabbar Jewel, Laboni Akter, Tenvir Prodhan and Sumaiya Binte Aziz took part in the hearing for the state, while senior advocate SM Shahjahan, Azizur Rahman Dulu, Masud Hasan Chowdhury and Mohammad Shishir Manir stood for the defence.

The 20 death-row convicts are- Mehedi Hasan Russel, Anik Sarker Opu, Ifti Mosharraf Sakal, Md Mehedi Hasan Robin, Md Meftahul Islam Jeon, Muntassir Alam Jemmy, Khandaker Tabakkharul Islam Tanvir, Md Muzahidur Rahman, Md Moniruzzaman Monir, Hossain Mohammad Toha, Md Mazedur Rahman Mazed, Shamim Billah, ASM Nazmus Sadat, Md Mizanur Rahman alias Mizan, Shamsul Arefin Rafat, SM Mahmud Setu, Morshed Amatya Islam, Morsheduzzaman Mondal Jisan, Mostaba Rafid and Ehteshamul Rabbi Tanim. 

The life awardees are- Muhtasim Fuad, Moaj Abu Hurayra, Istiak Ahammed Munna, Amit Saha and Md Akash Hossain. They were also fined Taka 50 thousand each, in default; they have to suffer one year more behind the bars.

Abrar's father Barkat Ullah, after the pronouncement of the High Court judgment, expressed his satisfaction over the verdict and urged the authorities to execute it swiftly after all procedures are completed.

Abrar Fahad was brutally beaten to death on October 7, 2019, by some leaders of the then BUET unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), now banned, over his Facebook posts. 

BUET students and the varsity authorities found the seemingly lifeless body of Abrar, 22, on the first-floor stairs of Sher-e-Bangla Hall and rushed him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), where doctors declared him dead at around 6.30 am on October 7, 2019.
Abrar's father filed the case with Chawkbazar thana against 19 BCL activists of BUET unit. Police later included the names of six others in the list of the accused after the investigation.

Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 on December 8, 2021, convicted and sentenced 20 people to death and five more to life term in the case.

The tribunal in its observation had said the convicts tortured and subsequently killed Abrar based on the false allegation of being an activist of Shibir (Islami Chhtra Shibir).

"That brutal incident saddened the people of the whole country. The convicts are being given maximum punishments to stop repetition of such heinous incident," the court said.