A Chattogram court on Wednesday sentenced a man to death for abducting and murdering five-year-old Alina Islam Ayat in 2022 before dismembering her body and dumping the remains in different locations.

Judge Muhammad Ali Akkas of the Sixth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court handed down the death sentence to Abir Ali and fined him Tk 1 lakh in default to suffer one year more rigorous imprisonment.

Abir was present in court when the verdict was delivered, said assistant Public Prosecutor Raihanul Wazed Chowdhury.

He said the court observed that the murder was premeditated, brutal and heinous, and awarded the highest punishment after reviewing all evidence.

Public Prosecutor Jalal Uddin said that 33 witnesses testified during the trial before the verdict was announced.

According to police and court documents, Ayat, daughter of Sohel Rana of Bandar Tila under the EPZ Police Station area, went missing on November 15, 2022. After her family filed a general diary, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) launched an inquiry.

Investigators identified Abir Ali, a tenant in the family’s house, as the prime suspect. He was arrested on November 25, 2022, and later confessed to the crime before a court.

PBI officials said Abir had abducted Ayat with the intention of demanding ransom. Investigators found that he killed the child after failing to find a place to keep her confined.

He had purchased a mobile phone and planned to make a ransom call using a SIM card he had found on a road, but the SIM was inactive and he could not contact the family.

To conceal the crime, Abir dismembered the body and disposed of the parts near the seashore and a canal. Following his arrest, investigators recovered the cleaver used in the killing and the child’s shoes from different locations.

On November 30, 2022, PBI recovered two legs of the victim near a sluice gate adjacent to Akmal Ali Ghat on the Outer Ring Road, and her severed head was recovered from the same area the next day.

Investigators also found a DNA match between bloodstains collected from Abir’s residence and samples from Ayat.

On October 9, 2023, PBI Chattogram Metro inspector Monoj Kumar Dey submitted a charge sheet to the court against Abir Ali and sought dropping the names of his father, mother and sister due to lack of evidence.

The investigator also submitted a separate charge sheet against a 17-year-old boy for concealing information despite being aware of the murder and the subsequent dismemberment and disposal of the body. As he was a minor at the time of the incident, his trial is being held separately in a juvenile court.