Dhaka, Dec 9 (IANS): A Dhaka court has sentenced 20 people to death over the 2019 murder of a Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology student.

Judge Abu Zafar Md Kamruzzaman of the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 here also jailed five others to life imprisonment in the murder case of Abrar Fahad, reports Xinhua news agency.

The court found all the accused guilty of the murder.

Of the convicts three have been absconding since the incident, while the rest are now behind bars.

Fahad, a second-year BUET student, died in the early hours of October 7, 2019 after he was brutally beaten allegedly by some leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the ruling Bangladesh Awami League party-backed student organisation, at a hall of the university.

The victim was beaten to death reportedly over a social media post.

The brutal death of the student sparked student protests across Bangladesh.

The court in the verdict mentioned that the highest punishment to the accused is aimed at preventing repetition of an incident of the similar fashion in future.