Shawdesh Desk:

Security has been beefed up in the Cox’s Bazar court area ahead of verdict in a case filed against 15 people, including Teknaf police station’s former Office-in-Charge (OC) Pradeep Kumar Das, over the murder of Major (retd) Sinha Mohammad Rashed Khan.

Cox’s Bazar District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Ismail is scheduled to announce the verdict in the much-talked-about case today.

Additional police personnel have been deployed in and around the court premises to prevent any untoward incident following the verdict.

The movement of pedestrians around the court is also being restricted.

Earlier on January 12, the judge set the date for the verdict after finishing the argument hearing in the case.

A total of 65 out of 83 prosecution witnesses testified before the court during the trial proceeding in the case.

Fifteen people, including 12 policemen, have been tried over the killing.

The accused are former sub-inspectors Liakat Ali and Nanda Dulal Raxit, former Teknaf Police Station OC Pradip Kumar Das, former  constables Shafanur Karim, Kamal Hossain, Abdullah Al Mamun, Rubel Sharma and Mohammad Mostafa, former ASI Sagar Deb, Armed Police Battalion’s SI Mohammad Shahjahan and constables Mohammad Rajib and Mohammad Abdullah.

The three other accused are : Nurul Amin, Nezam Uddin ad Mohammad Ayaz. They were initially named as witnesses in a case filed by the police over the incident.

On the night of July 31, 2020, Major Sinha was shot dead by policemen at a checkpoint on the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf Marine Drive.

After Sinha’s death, the police said they fired in self-defence when Sinha brandished a pistol at law enforcers after obstructing a search of his vehicle at the checkpoint.

The police then arrested Sinha’s co-workers Shahedul Islam Sefat and Shipra Debnath and two cases were filed against them over Sinha’s death and alleged recovery of drugs.

Later, the home ministry formed a high-level inquiry after questions were raised about the details of the incident provided by the police while allegations of ‘extrajudicial killings’ against the police also resurfaced.

Sinha’s sister Sharmin Shahria Ferdous subsequently filed a case with a Cox’s Bazar court against nine policemen on August 5, the same year.

After investigation, RAB ASP Md Khairul Islam, also Investigation officer of case, submitted a charge-sheet accusing 15 people including former OC Pradeep Kumar Das in the case.