Nusrat murder: HC confirms two deaths, commutes four death sentences to life imprisonment

The High Court today confirmed the death sentences of two convicts -- then principal of Sonagazi Islamia Fazil Madrasa SM Siraj-Ud-Dowlah and his close aide Shahadat Hossain Shamim -- in the murder case of madrasa student Nusrat Jahan Rafi.The court commuted death sentences of four convicts to life imprisonment and acquitted 10 others from the case.The HC also ordered the law ministry to curtail the judicial power of the Feni court judge, Mamunur Rashid, for handing down death sentences to the accused in an “wholesale manner”.The bench of Justice Bhishmadev Chakrabortty and Justice KM Rasheduzzaman Raja pronounced the verdict after 17 working days of hearings on the death reference and appeals filed by the convicts challenging the trial court verdict.Nusrat, then a 19-year-old student of S