Committee listened to 9 ‘chosen’ witnesses in public hearing on Sinha murder
Journalists were not allowed in the hearing, nor were the witnesses permitted to talk to media about it
The home ministry's high-level investigation committee listened to nine of the chosen 11 witnesses to the Sinha murder in the mass hearing held in Teknaf, Cox's Bazar on Sunday.
The probe committee will submit its report to the ministry on August 23 in the much-talked-about murder case of the retired army officer, said Mizanur Rahman, convener of the committee.
However, journalists were not allowed in the public hearing, nor were witnesses permitted to talk to the media about it.
The committee tried to find answers to three questions, whether Sinha's killing was pre-planned or an incident on the spur of the moment, whether anyone ordered OC Pradeep to shoot Sinha and whether Sinha had a gun in his hand during the incident.
The hearing started at 10am at Shamlapur Rohingya camp in-charge's office in Teknaf and continued until 5:30pm.
The investigation team started taking official statements at 11:30am.
Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, additional divisional commissioner of Chattogram and convener of the committee; Lt Colonel Sajjad, nominated by Ramu 10 Infantry Division GOC and working at the Prime Minister's Office; Additional DIG Zakir Hossain, nominated by the Chattogram DIG; and Mohammad Shahjahan Ali, additional district magistrate of Cox's Bazar, attended the hearing.
The nine people who testified were: Abdul Hamid, Mohammad Amin, Saiful Afsar, Mohammad Amin (2), Zakir Hossain, Rashid Ahmmed, Anicharul Alam, Delwar Hossain, and Nurul Amin. All of them are residents of Baharchhara area and saw the killing incident that night, according to the probe body.
"We also talked to around 60 people, including: policemen, doctors, drivers, eyewitnesses, members of the Teknaf police, and the Baharchhara Investigation Centre," Mizanur Rahman said.
According to local people, everyone started to come to the hearing from 9am and the persons willing to give statements went to the registration booth.
Different law enforcement agencies – including the army – enforced strict security in-and-around Shaplapur area on Cox's Bazar's Marine Drive.
One of the locals told The Business Standard that a lot of people came to testify before the probe body. "However, the committee only took statements from eleven people who were pre-selected."
Following the ministry's instructions, the committee, on August 4, started the investigation and visited the killing spot thrice.
Mizanur Rahman said they would make a recommendation so that this kind of killing does not happen in future.
"We will submit the report to the government. If the investigation officer concerned wants to use it during his probe, he can. However, the decision will completely depend on that officer," he added.
