Staff Reporter :
A Cox’s Bazar court will deliver the verdict on much-talked Major (Rtd.) Sinha Md Rashed Khan murder case today (Monday).
Public Prosecutor of the court Advocate Faridul Alam said Cox’s Bazar District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Ismail will pronounce the verdict in presence of the accused in the court as the hearing of arguments of both sides has concluded.
The 15 accused, including 12 former policemen, will be brought in court by a prison van from Cox’s Bazar District Jail around 9:30am amid tight security.
They include former Teknaf Police Station OC Pradip Kumar Das, former sub-inspector Liakat Ali, Nanda Dulal Rakhsit, former constables Shafanur Karim, Kamal
Hossain, Abdullah Al Mamun, Rubel Sharma and Mohammad Mostafa, former ASI Sagar Deb, Armed Police Battalion’s sub-inspector Mohammad Shahjahan and constables Mohammad Rajib and Mohammad Abdullah.
The three other accused-Nurul Amin, Nizam Uddin and Mohammad Ayaz-were initially named as witnesses in the case.
The plaintiff of the case and Sinha’s elder sister Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous has wanted maximum and exemplary punishment of the two main accused-Pradeep Kumar and Liakat. The rest of the accused should be punished on the basis of their own crimes.
“We expect that the verdict will establish the truth that none can evade punishment if he or she commits any crime,” she said.
She also expressed the hope that extrajudicial killings would come to an end through the judgement in her brother’s murder case.
Sources said Pradeep Kumar Das ordered as many as 144 extrajudicial killings during 22 months in the name of eliminating drug dealers when he was Teknaf Police Station OC. The incidents left 204 people dead. All the victims of extrajudicial killings were described as ‘drug dealers’ by Pradeep following their brutal murders.
At night on July 31, 2020, Major (Retd) Sinha Md Rashed Khan was killed in police firing at Baharchhara police check-post on Marine Drive Road in Teknaf upazila of Cox’s Bazar district.
The 36-year-old former army officer, who served at the Special Security Force tasked with guarding the President and Prime Minister, had gone into early retirement to pursue his interests.
He had been staying at a resort in Cox’s Bazar’s Himchhari with three others for around a month to film a travel documentary.
On August 5–five days after the incident, Sinha’s elder sister Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous filed a murder case with Teknaf Senior Judicial Magistrate Court, accusing former Teknaf Police Station OC Pradeep Kumar Das, sub-inspector Nandadul and seven others.
Besides, police also filed three cases (Two at Teknaf Police Station and one at Ramu Police Station) being the plaintiff.
The four cases were later handed over to the RAB-15 for investigation.
Later, on August 6, 2020, seven policemen, including Pradip and Liakat, surrendered to the court. They were also suspended from their jobs.
During the investigation, the RAB-15 arrested seven more people including three local villagers, three members of Armed Police Battalion (APBn) and OC Pradeep’s bodyguard as their involvement was found in Sinha murder.
Later, on June 24, 2020, chargesheeted accused constable Sagar Deb surrendered to the court. With his surrender, all the 15 accused were brought under law.
On December 13, 2020, investigation officer and RAB-15 Cox’s Bazar’s senior assistant police super Md Khairul Islam submitted charge-sheet in the case to the court, accusing 15 persons including OC Pradeep Kumar Das and Liakat.
In the charge-sheet, the investigation officer termed Sinha murder as a “planned and cold-blooded murder” mentioning the names of 83 persons as witnesses.
