A court in Dhaka has deferred the delivery of verdict in the 2016 murder of Willes Little Flower School student Suraiya Akter Risha.
Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge KM Imrul Kayes fixed Oct 10 for the delivery of the verdict, defendant’s counsel Faruk Ahmed told Bangla Tribune.
He said that the verdict was supposed to be delivered on Sunday (Oct 6) but it was deferred as the accused Obaidul Hoque could not be brought to court on account of police officers being on Durga Puja duty.
Fourteen-year-old Risha was stabbed on Aug 24, 2016 year near a foot-over bridge not far from her school at the capital’s Kakrail by her stalker 28-year-old Obaidul Hoque.
She succumbed to her injuries three days later at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Obaidul, who worked in a tailor shop in an Elephant Road in Dhaka, was accused by Risha's family of ‘harassing’ the schoolgirl over the phone for several months and her mother filed a case against him after the attack.
Obaidul was arrested on Aug 31 from the northern district of Nilphamari. He confessed to Risha’s murder in a deposition in September the same year.
Police pressed charges against him in November 2016 and the trial began in April next year after the court indicted Obaidul.
On Sept 11, 2019, the court heard the closing statements before keeping its verdict pending to be delivered on Oct 6.