The killing in Old Dhaka
Biswajit Das ran a tailoring business and was travelling through Old Dhaka on December 9, 2012, during a nationwide opposition blockade. He was attacked near Bahadur Shah Park in broad daylight. News cameras and photographers documented the assault, making the case one of the most publicly witnessed killings of its period.
Reporting identified the attackers as activists associated with the Bangladesh Chhatra League at Jagannath University. That affiliation is part of the factual context of the prosecution; it does not make unrelated members of the organization responsible for the crime.
The investigation and trial
Police filed charges against 21 people in March 2013. The trial began later that year. On December 18, 2013, a Dhaka court convicted all 21 defendants: eight received death sentences and 13 received life imprisonment.
Many defendants were fugitives. Because a trial judgment is not necessarily the final judicial result, the death references and appeals moved to the High Court.
The 2017 High Court judgment
On August 6, 2017, the High Court substantially changed the trial-court outcome. It upheld the death sentences of Rafiqul Islam Shakil and Rajon Talukder. Four other men who had originally received death sentences — Mahfuzur Rahman Nahid, Emdadul Haque Emdad, GM Rasheduzzaman Shaon and Noor-e-Alam Limon — had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment.
The High Court acquitted Md Saiful Islam and Qayum Mia Tipu, both of whom had originally been sentenced to death. It also acquitted AHM Kibria and Golam Mustafa, who had appealed their original life sentences. The court did not issue a comparable merits ruling on the 11 life-sentenced fugitives who had not pursued appeals before it.
Why acquittals matter
The trial-court verdict convicted 21 people, but that number cannot be quoted as though every conviction survived unchanged. Four defendants were acquitted by the High Court, and several other sentences were reduced. This page therefore identifies the appellate outcome rather than repeating only the first judgment.
The government later sought to challenge acquittals. Supreme Court chamber proceedings in 2017 did not immediately reverse those acquittals and allowed the state to pursue regular leave-to-appeal procedures.
Still waiting for finality
On the thirteenth anniversary of the murder, December 9, 2025, Dhaka Tribune reported that Biswajit's family still considered the case unresolved and described the matter as pending disposal on appeal. That later reporting is significant because it shows that the public legal history did not end neatly with the 2017 High Court judgment.
Crime by Region does not infer a later final appellate result that reliable sources have not established. It also does not describe fugitives as having completed appellate proceedings they never pursued.
Why the case is classified as Partial
There are multiple valid convictions and a detailed High Court judgment, so this is not an unsolved homicide in the sense of having no identified or adjudicated participants. But the mix of upheld convictions, commutations, acquittals, fugitives and further appeals makes it misleading to label the entire criminal process fully final.
The file is therefore classified as Partially Adjudicated. Individual outcomes are reported separately and should be updated if Bangladesh's higher courts issue later final decisions.
Timeline
December 9, 2012: Biswajit Das is killed near Bahadur Shah Park in Old Dhaka.
March 5, 2013: investigators file charges against 21 people.
December 18, 2013: the trial court sentences eight defendants to death and 13 to life imprisonment.
August 6, 2017: the High Court upholds two death sentences, commutes four to life and acquits four appellants across the death- and life-sentence groups.
November 2017: Supreme Court chamber proceedings allow further state challenge procedures without restoring the acquitted convictions at that stage.
December 9, 2025: later reporting still describes the case as pending disposal on appeal.
Current status
The murder is partially adjudicated. Several convictions survived High Court review, several defendants were acquitted, other sentences were reduced, and additional appellate questions remained unresolved in the latest reliable reporting located for this update.