Court accepts Sinha murder chargesheet, arrest warrant against Sagar

A Cox's Bazar court has accepted the chargesheet, filed by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), in the much-talked retired army major Sinha Mohammad Rashed Khan murder case.

The court also issued arrest warrant against Teknaf OC Pradeep's associates Sagar and dropped Sinha's assistant  Shahedul Islam Sifat from the charge.

RAB filed the chargesheet on 13 December in Cox's Bazar senior judicial magistrate court accusing 15 people, including OC Pradeep.

After investing the case for more than four months, RAB concluded that suspended OC Pradeep was the mastermind of the murder and Liaquat killed Sinha.

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Retired major Sinha was killed in police firing at Shamlapur police check-post at Teknaf's Baharchhara union, on Cox's Bazar Marine Drive, on the night of 31 July this year.

Later on 5 August, Sinha's sister Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous filed a murder case against nine people, including former Teknaf Police Station OC Pradeep Kumar Das.

Why did Pradeep plan to kill Sinha?

The elite force revealed the reasons behind the murder during a briefing in Dhaka after submitting the chargesheet.

During the media brief, Lieutenant Colonel Ashique Billah, director of RAB Legal and Media wing, said, "While shooting for a documentary as a youtuber in Teknaf in June this year, Sinha Rashed Khan came to know about the involvement of Pradeep in illegal yaba trading and how he used to terrorise the local people abusing his power.

For the documentary, Sinha took interviews of some locals in Teknaf.

Pradeep wanted to cover up all his misdeeds, which could be revealed by Sinha. Thus Sinha became a threat to OC Pradeep. Initially, Sinha was threatened when he went to take OC Pradeep's statement on his involvement in yaba smuggling, the RAB official said. So, OC Pradeep made a plan to kill Sinha.

Later, as per Pradeep's order over phone, SI Liakat Ali shot retired major Sinha to death at Shamlapur police check-post at Teknaf's Baharchhara union, on Cox's Bazar Marine Drive, on the night of 31 July this year.

The main accused in the case was Liakat Ali, the inspector in charge of the Baharchhara police outpost, who shot Sinha. Teknaf Police Station OC (dismissed) Pradeep Kumar Das has been made the No. 2 accused.

Liaquat had consulted with him over the phone before the shooting, the statement reads. Liaquat shot Sinha in the head with a cold blood at the OC's "persuasion and direction". It is alleged in the case that Pradeep later went to the spot and tried to mutilate Sinha by hitting him on the face and various parts of the body with his shoes.

The third accused in the case is Teknaf Police Station SI Dulal Rakshit, who filed a case under the Narcotics and Weapons Act after Sinha's death.  The seven accused policemen then surrendered to the court. In the course of investigation, RAB arrested a total of 14 people, including three locals, including APBN and Pradeep's bodyguard, in connection with the murder.

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