Sinha murder: Pradeep, Liakat sentenced to death

A Cox’s Bazar Court sentenced former Teknaf Police Station OC Pradeep Kumar and former inspector of Baharchhara Police Investigation Centre Liakat Ali to death in the Major Sinha Rashed Khan murder case.

Cox’s Bazar District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Ismail sentenced six others to life term imprisonment on Monday.

They are former SI Nanda Dulal Rakshit, former ASI Sagar Deb, former constable Rubel Sharma, and police informants Nurul Amin, Nezam Uddin and Ayaz Uddin.

Three Armed Police Battalion (APBn) members and four members of the Baharchhara police outpost were acquitted from the charge.

These three APBn members include sub-inspector Mohammad Shahjahan, constables Mohammad Rajib and Mohammad Abdullah.

Four others are the members of Baharchhara police outpost constable Safanul Karim, Kamal Hossain, Liton Mia and Abdullah Al Mamun.

Earlier, the accused were brought to the court from Cox’s Bazar district jail around 2:00 pm on Monday.

Notably, the retired Major Sinha Rashed Khan was shot dead by police at the APBn check-post at Shamlapur in Baharchhara on the night of July 31, 2020, on the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf Marine Drive.

Later, major Sinha’s sister Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous filed a case against nine policemen, including former OC Pradip and former Inspector Liakat Ali, with Cox’s Bazar court on August 5, six days after the killing.

The court took cognizance of the case and assigned Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) to investigate.

After the investigation, RAB-15 Cox’s Bazar Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police Khairul Islam indicted 15 people and issued a charge sheet on December 13, 2020.

Then on June 27, 2021, the court ordered to start trial against the 15 accused.

From August 23, 2021, to December 1, 2021, about 65 out of 83 witnesses testified in eight phases while the accused testified in court on December 6 and 7.

Finally, the judicial proceedings came to an end when the lawyers of both the parties presented arguments in the case from January 9 to 12 while the court set January 31 for announcing the verdict.

ARR