Cox's Bazar Court Under Tight Security, Sinha Murder Verdict after 2pm

A high level of security has been put in place in and around the Cox's Bazar district court centring the verdict in the much-talked about murder case of retired Bangladesh Army Major Sinha Md Rashed Khan, reports media.

The trial proceedings of the case have been ended in only 33 working days.

Cox's Bazar District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Ismail is going to pronounce the verdict after 2 pm on Monday in presence of the accused.

Additional police forces have been deployed on the court premises to avert any untoward situation.

The movement of pedestrians around the court is also being restricted.

The 15 accused, including 12 former policemen, will be brought in court by a prison van from Cox's Bazar District Jail at noon amid tight security.

They include former Teknaf Police Station OC Pradip Kumar Das, former sub-inspector Liakat Ali, Nanda Dulal Rakhsit, former constables Shafanur Karim, Kamal Hossain, Abdullah Al Mamun, Rubel Sharma and Mohammad Mostafa, former ASI Sagar Deb, Armed Police Battalion's sub-inspector Mohammad Shahjahan and constables Mohammad Rajib and Mohammad Abdullah.

The three other accused--Nurul Amin, Nizam Uddin and Mohammad Ayaz--were initially named as witnesses in the case.

At night on July 31, 2020, Major (Retd) Sinha Md Rashed Khan was killed in police firing at Baharchhara police check-post on Marine Drive Road in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar district.

The 36-year-old former army officer, who served at the Special Security Force tasked with guarding the president and prime minister, had gone into early retirement to pursue his interests.

He had been staying at a resort in Cox's Bazar's Himchhari with three others for around a month to film a travel documentary.

On August 5--five days after the incident, Sinha's elder sister Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous filed a murder case with Teknaf Senior Judicial Magistrate Court, accusing former Teknaf Police Station OC Pradeep Kumar Das, sub-inspector Nandadul and seven others.

Besides, police also filed three cases (Two at Teknaf Police Station and one at Ramu Police Station) being the plaintiff.

The four cases were later handed over to the RAB-15 for investigation.

Later, on August 6, 2020, seven policemen, including Pradip and Liakat, surrendered to the court. They were also suspended from their jobs.

During the investigation, the RAB-15 arrested seven more people including three local villagers, three members of Armed Police Battalion (APBn) and OC Pradeep's bodyguard as their involvement was found in Sinha murder.

Later, on June 24, 2020, chargesheeted accused constable Sagar Deb surrendered to the court. With his surrender, all the 15 accused were brought under law.

On December 13, 2020, investigation officer and RAB-15 Cox's Bazar's senior assistant police super Md Khairul Islam submitted chargesheet in the case to the court, accusing 15 persons including OC Pradeep Kumar Das and Liakat.

In the chargesheet, the investigation officer termed Sinha murder as a "planned and cold-blooded murder" mentioning the names of 83 persons as witnesses.