DHAKA, July 25, 2023 (BSS) - The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court today dismissed an appeal filed for death-row-convict Jahangir Alam for staying his execution in the case lodged over brutal murder of Rajshahi University Prof Dr S Taher Ahmed.

"Dismissed," said the order passed by four-judge apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.

The High Court on July 17 scrapped a writ petition filed by Md Sohrab Hossain, brother of convict Jahangir Alam, for staying the execution. He later filed this appeal with the apex court.

The Appellate Division on March 2, 2023, dismissed a petition seeking review of the apex court order that upheld death sentence of former associate professor Rajshahi University Dr Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin and former caretaker of Dr Taher's house, Jahangir Alam.

The apex court on September 14, 2022, published the 68-page verdict upholding the death sentence of two convicts, Rajshahi University teacher Dr Miah Mohammad Mohiuddin and then caretaker at Prof S Taher's residence Jahangir Alam. The apex court also upheld sentence of life imprisonment of Abdus Salam and Nazmul Alam.

Dr S Taher Ahmed, Professor of Rajshahi University Department of Geology and Mining, was killed on February 1, 2006 and police recovered his body from a septic tank behind his residence on the university campus on February 3 the same year. His son Sanjid Alvi Ahmed filed the case with Motihar Police Station on the same day.

Rajshahi Speedy Trial Tribunal on May 22, 2008, sentenced four accused to death and acquitted two others of the charges.

The High Court after holding hearing on the death reference and appeals of the convicts, pronounced its judgment on April 21, 2013. It confirmed the death sentence of the then RU teacher Dr Mia Mohammad Mohiuddin and Jahangir Alam for their involvement in the gruesome murder. The court however, commuted the death sentences of Jahangir's brother Md Abdus Salam and brother-in-law Md Nazmul. 

On February 22, 2022, the apex court started hearing on the appeals filed by the convicts challenging the HC verdict against them. The Appellate Division on April 5, 2022, upheld the High Court verdict.