The High Court has set Sunday (June 14, 2026) for hearing the death reference and appeals in the case over the rape and murder of eight-year-old Asiya in Magura.
The death reference and appeals have been included as item number 20 in Sunday’s cause list of the High Court bench of Justice Bhishmadev Chakrabortty and Justice KM Rasheduzzaman Raja for their hearing, according to the Supreme Court website.
This High Court bench was formed on June 10 by Chief Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury in order to exclusively hear and dispose of cases involving death sentences awarded under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.
On June 30 last year, another High Court bench accepted for hearing the appeals -- a regular appeal and a jail appeal -- filed by death-row convict Md Hitu Sheikh against the lower court verdict in the Asiya rape and murder case.
The bench also stayed the part of the verdict that fined Hitu Sheikh Tk 1 lakh.
On May 17 last year, the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal in Magura sentenced Hitu Sheikh to death on charges of rape and murder.
Hitu’s wife, Jaheda Begum, 38, and sons Ratul Sheikh, 18, and Sajib Sheikh, 20, were acquitted as the charges against them could not be proven.
Hitu Sheikh, 44, is the father-in-law of the victim's sister, and Sajib is the victim's brother-in-law.
According to case documents, the child went to visit the home of her elder sister’s in-laws in Nijnanduali Mathpara, Magura Sadar, on March 1 last year. She was raped there in the early hours of March 6. On the same day, she was taken to Magura 250-bed District Hospital in a critical condition and later transferred to Faridpur Medical College Hospital.
From Faridpur, she was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in an unconscious state on that day and put on life support the next night.
When her condition deteriorated, the child was transferred to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka on March 8. She died at the CMH on March 13.
On March 8, her mother filed the case with Magura Sadar Police Station under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, accusing Hitu, Jaheda, Sajib and Ratul.
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