A court in Moulvibazar has sentenced a man to death and fined him Tk 50,000 for killing his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter with a machete in an attempt to implicate his rivals in a long-standing land dispute.

Judge of the Second District and Sessions Court in Moulvibazar delivered the verdict on Monday (24 August) in the sensational murder case.

According to the case details and court sources, the incident took place around 3am on February 10, 2014, at the accused's home in East Bhanubil village under Adampur union of Kamalganj upazila. The victim, Runa Begum, was asleep when her father, Sharif Ali, allegedly attacked her with a machete and slit her throat.

Sharif Ali had been involved in a long-standing land dispute with his cousins. Investigators and court proceedings found that he killed his daughter with the intention of implicating his rivals in the murder and dragging them into legal trouble. After the killing, he allegedly tried to blame a man named Salek Mia for the crime.

However, the child's mother, Nekhjan Bibi, who was Sharif Ali's wife, later learned the actual circumstances surrounding the killing. She subsequently filed a murder case against her husband in court.

During the investigation and trial, evidence emerged establishing Sharif Ali's involvement in the murder. At one stage, he confessed to the crime before a magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

After examining the evidence and hearing the arguments of both sides over a lengthy judicial process, the court found Sharif Ali guilty under Section 302 of the Penal Code and sentenced him to death. It also imposed a fine of Tk 50,000.

State counsel Advocate Tofail Ahmed confirmed the verdict.

He said the court observed that while a daughter is often regarded as a father's princess, Sharif Ali brutally killed his own young child over a land dispute.

The verdict came more than 12 years after the murder, bringing an end to the long-running trial of the much-discussed case.