A court in Satkhira has sentenced a man to life in a four-year-old rape case.
Convict Shukumar Mridha, who has been tried as a fugitive to justice, was also slapped a fine of Tk 100,000.
Judge Hosne Ara Akter of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal said in its verdict on Thursday that the convict will have to spend an additional six months behind the bars, if he fails to pay the fine.
According to the case details, the convict and the victim were residents of the same village in the district’s Shyampur Upazila.
On the night of May 18, Mridha barged in to the victim’s house, where she was alone and had a physical relation with her on promises of marrying her.
The next day Mridha staged a fake marriage at a local temple. However, a month later when the victim became pregnant, he declined the responsibilities.
The victim’s family took up the matter to the local union council chairman, but failed to get a solution.
They then filed a case against Mridha and his parents. Charges against the parents were later dropped by the court.