A Khulna court has handed down the death penalty to five people over the murder of a schoolteacher, Taskin Hossain Toyon, in 2018.

The district's Speedy Trial Tribunal judge Md Nazrul Hawladar passed the verdict on Sunday.

Toyon, a resident of Khulna city, taught kindergarten at a local school.

He went missing on the evening of August 28, 2018, prompting his father, Kazi Tota, to start a case with Khalishpur police on September 08.

Police subsequently arrested a suspect named 'Saiful' in connection with the case and based on the information he divulged, law enforcers recovered the body of Toyon from a canal in Ansar Uddin Road on September 11.