OC Pradeep sued again for killing expatriate in ‘gunfight’

A case has been filed against 23 people, including the former officer-in-charge (OC) of Teknaf Police Station Pradeep Kumar Das, for allegedly killing Mahamudul Haque ─ an expatriate ─ in a 'gunfight' even after Tk5 lakh was paid as extortion.   

After reviewing the statement, the court has ordered the submission of a detailed report on the case filed at the Teknaf Police Station in connection with the death of Mahamudul Haque in a 'gunfight.' 

The court of Md Helal Uddin, senior judicial magistrate (Teknaf-3) issued the order on Wednesday afternoon. 

Among the accused, 16 are policemen including OC Pradeep, and the others are local elites and watchmen of the area.

Nurul Hossain, 45, son of Mia Hossain of Moulvibazar area of ​​Hnila union in Teknaf upazila, has lodged the case.  

The accused in the case are: Teknaf Police Station Sub-Inspector (SI) Deepak Biswas, OC Pradeep Kumar Das, SI Jamshed Ahmed, OC (Investigation) ABMS Doha, SI Dipankar Karmakar, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Hillol Barua, ASI Farhad Hossain, ASI Amir Hossain, ASI Sanjit Dutt, Constable Rubel Sharma, Constable Sagor Deb, Driver Zahir, Constable Hridoy, Battalion Constable Saikat, Battalion Constable Prosenjit, Battalion Constable Uday, Nurul Amin Prakash Nurullah Dafadar, Zahangir Alam (son of late Abu Shama of the same area), Nurul Hossain (son of Nazir Ahmed of Natmura Para), Bhutto (son of Alo of Shikder Para), Anwarul Islam Nanaiya (son of late Tofail Ahmed), Nurul Alam (son of Abul Hashem of East Pankhali), and Nurul Amin (son of late Nabi Hossain).

The plaintiff mentioned in the case statement that his younger brother Mahamudul Haque returned from abroad recently. After his return, Nurullah ─ a leader of local watchmen, demanded Tk10 lakh from him through the police as extortion. 

Later, his brother was arrested on March 26, 2019 for not paying the extortion. They paid Tk5 lakh for releasing Mahmudul from police custody. But on March 31, Mahmudul was killed near a salt field.  

The plaintiff's lawyer Md Qashem Ali said, "After reviewing the statement, the court has ordered the submission of a detailed report on September 7 on the case filed at the Teknaf police station over the gunfight.

Nurul Hossain said, there were no cases against his brother. 

"My brother was killed in a planned manner. Since then, we are receiving threats from the police continuously. We could not lodge a complaint earlier as we did not feel secure. Now we have got the option," he said.  

It is mentionable that on the night of July 31, Major (Retd) Sinha Mohammad Rashed Khan was killed in police firing at Shamlapur check post. He was on his way back to Nilima Resort in Himchhari area of ​​Cox's Bazar. 

A case was filed against Pradeep Kumar Das, the then OC of Teknaf Police Station and nine other policemen in this regard. 

Three members of the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) have also been implicated in the case. 

Now, they are all in Cox's Bazar District Jail. They were first put on 7-day remand, and later another 4-day remand. 

So, the victims of harassment by the police in different police stations are trying to lodge complaints against the police. 

As part of that, Nurul Hossian filed a case on Wednesday claiming that his brother Mahmudul Haque, an expatriate, was killed in a so-called gunfight.