News Desk :
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Sunday pressed charges against 15 people, including former officer-in-charge of Teknaf Police Station Pradeep Kumar Das, in the Major (retd) Sinha Rashed Khan murder case.
Senior ASP of RAB Mohammad Khairul Islam, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, submitted the charge sheet before Judge Tamanna Farah of Cox’s Bazar Senior Judicial Magistrate Court-4 through the court inspector at around 10:30am.
After a brief hearing, the court accepted the charge sheet.
The other charge-sheeted accused included Baharchhara Investigation Centre’s Inspector Liaqat Ali, Sub-inspector Nandadulal Rakshit and constables Safanur Karim, Abdullah Al Mamun and Mohammad Mostafa; Armed Police Battalion’s Sub-inspector Mohammad Shahjahan and constables Md Rajib and Mohammad Abdullah; Teknaf Police Station’s constables Rubel Sharma and Sagar Deb; and three villagers of Maroshbunia village-Nurul Amin, Mohammad Ayaz and Nejamuddin.
Cox’s Bazar public prosecutor Faridul Alam confirmed the matter, adding that the court would now set a date for hearing on the charges brought against the suspects.
The RAB investigator included the names of 80 prosecution witnesses, including six persons who made statements before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in the charge sheet, RAB unit-15 officials said.
Among the 15 accused, Pradeep is now in Chattogram district jail, 13 are in Cox’s Bazar jail while Constable Sagar Deb is on the run.
Of the accused, nine policemen, including prime accused Liyakat, and three civilians have made statements under Section 164 before the court.
Sinha, 36, who took early retirement from the Bangladesh Army in November 2018, was shot dead at a police checkpoint on Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf Marine Drive at Shamlapur on July 31.
The incident triggered protests in many quarters, with the number of so-call gunfights plummeting since August.
Sinha’s sister Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous on August 5 filed a complaint with the Cox’s Bazar judicial magistrate court, accusing nine policemen, which ordered the Teknaf police station to record a murder case against the police officials.
Expressing satisfaction over charge sheet and the pace of the probe, Sharmin said, “I am happy that key accused have been indicted. “We want exemplary punishment of OC Pradeep, SI Liaquat and other accused,” she told The New Nation.
“We are now waiting for the trial… I am hopeful that the maximum punishment will hand down to the accused by the court after a speedy trial.”
Sharmin also thanked RAB for giving the chargesheet within a short time. She also thanked Retired Armed Forces Officer’s Welfare Association for supporting her family all the time.
