Dhaka: The High Court on Sunday upheld the death sentence of two convicts for killing a minor boy in Rajshahi in 2010.

The condemned convicts are Shaheb Ali and Mukul Hossain of Mohonpur in Rajshahi district.

An HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim passed the order after hearing the death reference and appeals filed by the convicts.

Advocate AFM Mejbah Uddin and Advocate SMA Mubeen stood for the petitioners while Deputy Attorney General Farhad Ahmed and Assistant Attorney General Yusuf Mahmud Morshed represented the state.

Besides, the HC commuted the life imprisonment of another convict, Russel, to 14 years’ imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, Mahfuzur Rahman Oli, a Class-III student of Krishnapur Government Primary School in Mohonpur of Rajshahi, was abducted on April 26 in 2010.

Oli’s brother-in-law Shaheb Ali was the mastermind of the kidnapping. Later, Shaheb Ali and Mukul strangled the boy the following day after taking him to a maize field, and dumped the body under the ground.

Police arrested Shaheb Ali on suspicion and later he confessed to killing the boy to own the assets of his father-in-law.

On January 23, 2012, Rajshahi Speedy Trial Tribunal sentenced Shaheb Ali and Mukul Hossain to death and sentenced life imprisonment to Russel.