Bangladesh
Sinha Murder Case Pradeep-Liaquat to die for killing Major Sinha, six sentenced to life imprisonment, seven acquitted
Dhaka, January 31: A court has sentenced OC (dismissed) Pradeep Kumar and police inspector Liaquat Ali to death and six others to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of Major (retd) Sinha Md Rashed Khan. On the other hand, seven people have been acquitted from the case. Cox's Bazar District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Ismail pronounced the verdict on Monday (January 31) afternoon.
The acquitted persons are: Dismissed Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Liton Mia, dismissed Constable Safanur Karim, Kamal Hossain, Abdullah Al Mamun, dismissed APBn Sub-Inspector (SI) Md. Shahjahan, Dismissed Constable Md. Rajib and Md Abdullah.
The convicts are Rubel Sharma, Pradeep's bodyguard; Dismissed Sub-Inspector (SI) Nandadulal Rakshita of Baharchhara Police Investigation Center; Dismissed Constable Sagar Dev; Witnesses of the case filed by the police at Teknaf police station are Nurul Amin, Md. Nizamuddin and Ayaz Uddin of Marishbunia village in Shamlapur of Baharchhara union of Teknaf.
Each of them has been fined Tk 50,000.
Earlier, 15 accused, including controversial OC Pradeep Kumar and Liaquat, were produced in court around 2pm. The judge came to the court at 2.25 pm and started the court proceedings. Then he started observing the crime. After presenting the evidence as to whose crime it was, the judge pronounced the sentence according to the crime of involvement in the murder. Four members of the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) have been acquitted in the verdict.
The verdict in the case is being announced 18 months after the brutal and notorious murder. The next hearing of the case was completed in just 33 working days after the commencement of judicial proceedings.
This is the first time in the 38-year history of the Cox's Bazar District and Sessions Judge's Court that a verdict in a murder case has been announced so quickly. Never before has there been such a large number of witnesses in a murder or criminal case. There is no precedent for the formation of charges, hearings, testimony, cross-examination and presentation of arguments in such a short time.
Major Sinha was shot dead by police at the Shamlapur APBN checkpost in Baharchhara Union on the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf Marine Drive road on the night before Eid-ul-Azha on July 31, 2020. On August 5, four days after the murder, Sinha's elder sister Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous filed a murder case in the Cox's Bazar Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court. Former Teknaf Police Officer-in-Charge (OC) Pradeep Kumar Das and nine others were charged in the case.
