CHAITANYA CHANDRA HALDER and EMRUL HASAN BAPPI

Several important cases, which went on for years, were disposed of in Dhaka’s lower courts in 2021, amid the pandemic.

Judgments for murder cases of bloggers Faisal Arefin Dipan and Avijit Roy, LGBT rights activists Xulhaz Mannan and Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, and Buet student Abrar Fahad were much-talked about.

The graft case of former chief justice SK Sinha was also in the public eye.

On February 10, Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal sentenced eight members of banned militant group Ansar al-Islam to death for killing Faisal Arefin Dipan.

Dipan, publisher of Jagriti Prokashani, was stabbed to death at his Shahbagh office on October 31, 2015.

The same tribunal on February 16 sentenced five members of Ansar al-Islam to death and another to life in jail for killing Avijit Roy.

On February 26, 2015, assailants attacked US-based Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya with sharp weapons near TSC on Dhaka University campus, when the couple was walking out of Ekushey Boi Mela.

The tribunal on August 31 sentenced six members of Ansar al-Islam to death for killing LGBT rights activists Xulhaz and Tonoy.