A Jhenaidah court on Monday sentenced a man to death for raping and subsequently suffocating a four-year-old girl to death in Kaliganj upazila in the district.

The verdict was delivered by the Jhenaidah Prevention of Violence Against Children Tribunal in just five working days following special government directives to expedite the sensational case.

The convict was Abu Taher, 33, son of Shafiuddin, a resident of Foraspur village under Kaliganj upazila. He was present in the dock when the tribunal judge announced the judgment at about 11:30am.

According to the prosecution, the tribunal initiated the formal trial on June 16 and framed charges on June 17. Following the swift deposition of 16 prosecution witnesses, cross-examinations, and arguments, the tribunal delivered the judgment within four months of the crime.

According to the case statement, Taher worked as a sales representative for a company and lived in a rented house next to the victim’s residence. He lured the child into his room on the morning of February 25 by promising to buy her chips and juice, and raped her there. When the victim started screaming, Taher muffled her face and nose with a lungi, suffocating her to death.

To conceal the crime, he stuffed the body into a gunny sack later that night and dumped it inside a septic tank at the nearby Abdul Jabbar Secondary School.

The police recovered the body the following morning, and the victim’s father filed a case with Kaliganj police station on February 26.

The police arrested Taher from a rented house in Kushtia town the same night. Following his arrest, Taher gave a confessional statement before a magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Kaliganj police station officer-in-charge Jellal Hossain, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted the chargesheet on May 26.

Public prosecutor Akidul Islam expressed satisfaction over the verdict, saying, ‘We successfully presented airtight evidence and the testimonies of all 16 witnesses before the court. We hope the capital punishment will be upheld in the higher court.’

The victim’s father thanked the government and the law ministry for ensuring a fast-track trial and demanded swift execution of the verdict.