Sinha killing case charge sheet accepted by court

The court has received the charge sheet submitted in the retired major Sinha Md Rashed Khan killing case against 15 persons including Pradeep Kumar Das, officer-in-charge the Teknaf police station in Cox’s Bazar.

The charge sheet was accepted at 11:30am Monday morning by the court of Cox’s Bazar senior judicial magistrate Tamanna Farah. The court also issued an arrest warrant against the only fugitive accused in the case, police constable Sagar Deb.

Public prosecutor of the Cox’s Bazar court, Faridul Alam, speaking to Prothom Alo, said the court had accepted the charge sheet submitted by the investigating officer in the case filed by the sister of the killed retired major Sinha Md Rashed Khan.

At the same time the court also issued an arrest warrant against police constable Sagar Deb, the accused in the case who had gone into hiding. And charges have been dropped against Saidul Islam Sifat, accused in two cases filed by police of the Teknaf police station in the same incident.

Investigating officer in the case and RAB-13 assistant superintendent of police, Md Khairul Islam, terming the Sinha killing as preplanned, submitted the charge sheet to court on 13 December, accusing 15 persons in the case.

The charge sheet added the name of former constable Sagar Deb of Teknaf police station as an accused in the case. He is from the village Sutoria of Chandanaish upazila in Chattogram.

The accused named in the charge sheet are Baharchhara police outpost in-charge inspector Liaqat Ali, suspended OC Pradeep Kumar Das, SI Nandadulal Rakkhit of the police station, Baharchhara investigation centre’s ASI Md Liton Miah, Teknaf police station’s constable Safanul Karim, Md Kamal Hossain Azad, Md Abdullah Al Mamun, three residents of Baharchhara’s Marisbunia village Md Nurul Amin, Mohammad Aiyaz and Md Nizam Uddin, the members of the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) SI Md Shahjahan Ali, constable Abdullah Al Mahmud and constable Md Rajib Hossain and two other accused constable Rubel Sharma and constable Sagar Deb.

The first 14 of these accused are in jail. Nine of them are members of the district police. And three are residents of the village Marisbunia and police informers.

Retired army major Sinha Md Rashed Khan was shot to death at Baharchhara police outpost on Cox’s Bazar Marine Drive in the night of 31 July.

Police also detained Shahedul Islam alias Sifat who was with Sinha at the time of the killing. Later, a team of police detained two more members of Sinha’s documentary making team, Shipra Debnath and Tahsin Rifat Noor, from Nilima Resort in Cox’s Bazar where they were staying.

Though the law enforcement released Noor, they sent Shipra and Sifat to jail. The two were released on bail.

A total of four suits were lodged over the killing of Sinha. Immediately after the incident, police filed two cases with Teknaf police station and another with Ramu police station. Two of the cases were filed under narcotics act and another on allegation of attacking police.

The fourth suit was lodged by Sinha’s sister Sharmin Sharia Ferdous on 5 August against nine people including Pradeep Kumar Das and Liaqat Ali.

RAB was given charge of investigating all the four cases. A total of 14 people – 11 policemen and three locals – were arrested in those cases.

Investigating officer Khairul Islam said Sinha was killed in accordance to the plans of OC Pradeep Kumar Das.