The High Court yesterday confirmed the death sentence of Gaus Miah alias Rana and Ramzan awarded by the lower court for murder of Nikunja Bihari Debnath, joint secretary of the government, in January 2000.

Death sentence of two others, Deen-e-Islam and Shahinoor, was commuted to life imprisonment.

The vacation bench comprising Justice AK Badrul Huq and Justice Mizanur Rahman Bhuiyan upheld the life imprisonment of accused Shukur Ali and acquitted three othersMujibur, Mahinur and Morshed.

Nikunja, joint secretary of the Establishment Division, was stabbed to death by the accused near Jagannath Hall of the Dhaka University at 6:30am on January 11, 2000, while he was returning to his Azimpur government staff quarters by a rickshaw from Kamalapur Railway station.