Cumilla, July 23 -- A tribunal in Cumilla on Thursday sentenced a man to death in a case filed over the rape and murder of a nine-year-old child in Cumilla in 2024.

The convict was identified as Mofizul Islam Mofu, son of the late Abdul Khalek of Khilpara village in Cumilla Sadar Dakshin Upazila.

Judge Md. Yasin Arafat of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-1 delivered the verdict after completing the trial in just 19 working days.

According to the prosecution, on April 29, 2024, Tanjim Sultana Jhumur, a third-grade student at Sonali Shishu Bidyaniketan in Kheyaish village under Galiara Union of Cumilla Sadar Dakshin Upazila, went missing while returning home from school.

When she failed to return home at the expecte...