‘Liakat waited for Sinha, shot him dead after confirming his identity’
The footages showed that two BGB soldiers at the check-post saluted Sinha for six times after knowing he was a retired army personnel
Inspector Liakat Ali was waiting for Major (retd) Sinha Mohammad Rashed Khan to come to Shamlapur armed police check-post on Teknaf Marine Drive road on the night of July 31, a source involved with the investigation into the Sinha murder case said on Friday.
"Liakat did not hesitate to shoot Sinha the moment he confirmed his identity. We have come to know this after analysing footages from CCTV cameras installed at the BGB check-post and the other accused also admitted to this," the official added.
The footages showed that two BGB soldiers at the check-post saluted Sinha for six times after knowing he was a retired army personnel.
Just six minutes later, Sinha arrived at the APBn check-post and also revealed his identity. At the beginning, the on-duty APBn members allowed him to cross the check-post but Liakat obstructed his car putting a drum in front of it.
"Liakat held his gun with the left hand and placed the drum on the road with his right hand before Sinha's white car. At that moment, Sinha came out of his car with his hands over his head. His co-traveller Sifat also got down from another side of the vehicle. Sinha was saying, 'calm down, calm down, I am retired Major Sinha….' Moments later, Liakat shot him to death," said the investigators.
"Liakat was shouting 'get down, get down', then Sinha replied 'okay, okay, I am coming, you please calm down."
"Liakat did not wait even a few seconds after he had confirmed Sinha's identity. He fired four bullets targeting Sinha's body. It also confirmed that he neither shot for self-defence nor on the spur of the moment," the official added.
Pradeep, 2 cohorts taken to Shamlapur handcuffed
Twenty-one days after the Sinha killing, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) took the three prime accused – Pradeep Kumar Das, Liakat Ali and Nanda Dulal Rakhshit – to the Shamlapur check-post area on Friday where the killing took place.
Mohammad Khairul Islam, senior assistant superintendent of police of RAB-15 and also investigation officer of the case, visited the spot near the Baharchhara Police Investigation Centre at Teknaf in Cox's Bazar at around 1:15 pm on the day.
The three accused were placed on a seven-day remand on August 18. They were supposed to describe the killing incident to the investigation officer of the murder case on the spot.
While talking to reporters after visiting the spot along with the accused, RAB Additional Director General (operations) Tofail Mostafa Sarwar said the whole shooting incident of Sinha took place in a minute or two. What happened in those two minutes and why was he shot? He is looking for an answer to the question.
The investigation officer has to scrutinise everything to know every few second of the incident, he added.
"Since this is a sensitive issue, nothing can be said in a hurry. We are going into details, trying to find out why the firing took place," he further said.
He said it was not possible to say many things for the sake of investigation.
According to a RAB source, Pradeep Kumar wanted to blame Liakat for Sinha's murder during interrogation.
However, when the audio record of his phone call with Liakat was played before and after the incident, Pradeep went silent.
Later, Liakat and Pradeep were brought face to face and interrogated. Both of them then gave details of their involvement in the incident to the investigating officer.
