3 get 30 yrs' RI for forcing two girls into prostitution

The convicts are Noor Jahan alias Barsha, Joynal Abedin and Barsha's domestic help Baby.

Mohammad Mujibul Kamal of the First Special Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression handed down the sentence.

Of them, Barsha was present in the court during the delivery of the verdict while two others were tried in absentia.

The punishment to the fugitives will be effective from the day of their arrest or surrender, the court said.

The court fined them Tk one lakh each, in default, to suffer six months more RI in jail.

According to the prosecution, Joynal Abedin of Charfasion in Bhola district took two minor girls -- Rahima Begum, 14, and Seful, 15 -- to Dhaka on July 24, 1996 and later they were sold in a brothel of Noor Jahan of Bara Mogbazar. Noor Jahan forced them to prostitution. But the victims fled on September 22 the same year.

Later, Mohammad Shahidul Islam, father of the victim Rahima filed a case against Noor Jahan and two others the next day.

Assistant Public Prosecutor Kazi Abdus Salim appeared for the state while advocates Mohammad Hanif and Anwarul Kabir Babul defended the accused.