A Chattogram court has sentenced Md Al Amin, 44, to death for the killing of seven-year-old Mahfuz in the city’s Halishahar Toll Road area. The Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge of Chattogram, Nishaduzzaman, delivered the verdict on Tuesday after a judicial process lasting nine years. Mahfuz was allegedly strangled to death with a gamcha.

Court bench assistant Md Shahidul Islam said the sentence was imposed under section 302 of the Penal Code on the basis of testimony and evidence from 12 witnesses. The court also fined Al Amin Tk25,000. Mahfuz was a first-grade student at Halishahar Housing Estate Government Primary School. Al Amin was identified as the son of the late Jinnat Ali of Karpasha Putihara in Nikli, Kishoreganj.

Investigators found that Al Amin suspected Mahbub over his wife, while the two had previously fought over unpaid money. The investigation said Al Amin killed Mahbub’s child in retaliation for that dispute. For concealing evidence and removing the body, the court imposed seven years of rigorous imprisonment and a Tk5,000 fine. Failure to pay that fine carries an additional two months of simple imprisonment. The child’s father filed the murder case with Halishahar police, and trial proceedings began after charges were framed on April 27, 2017.