The Supreme Court has commuted punishment of three convicts from death sentence to jail unto death in the sensational Principal Gopal Krishna Muhuri murder case.

A three-member virtual bench of the Appellate Division headed by Justice Muhammad Imman Ali passed the order after hearing their appeals against the High Court verdict on them in the case on Tuesday .

The three convicted are Azam, Alamgir Kabir alias Baitta Alamgir and Tasleem Uddin Montu.

Earlier on July 18, 2006, the High Court confirmed the death sentence of four convicts in the case and acquitted two others.

Of the four, Nasir alias Gittu Nasir was killed in a crossfire with Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on March 2, 2005.

Gopal Krishana Muhuri, principal of Nazirhat College in Chittagong, was murdered at his house at Jamal Khan Road in the port city on November 16, 2001, barely five weeks after the BNP-led four-party coalition government took over.

Muhuri’s wife Uma Muhiri had filed the murder case accusing 12 people with the Kotali thana.

Later, the case was sent to the Speedy Trial Tribunal.

On February 3, 2003, the Speedy Trial Tribunal in Chittagong awarded capital punishment to four, Nasir alias Gittu Nasir, Azam, Alamgir Kabir alias Baitta Alamgir and Taslim Uddin Montu, while life sentence to four.

In the meantime, death penalty awardee Gittu Nasir was killed in a ‘crossfire’ with the RAB on March 2 last year while life-term awardee Saiful gunned down by criminals on June 29, 2004.

Mohiuddin and Habib Khan, who awarded life-term imprisonment, have been absconding since the brutal killing of Muhuri.