Ex-OC Pradip, Liakat Ali sentenced to death for killing Major Sinha

Staff Correspondent: A Cox’s Bazar court has sentenced two ex-police personnel – former Teknaf OC Pradip Kumar Das and Liakat Ali – to death for the murder of Major Sinha Md Rashed Khan.
Six other suspects in the case were sentenced to life in prison, while seven others were acquitted in the verdict announced by judge Mohammad Ismail of the Cox’s Bazar District and Sessions Judge’s Court yesterday.
Former Sub Inspector Nanda Dulal Raxit, ex-constable Rubel Sharma, former ASI Sagar Deb, and three police sources – Nurul Amin, Nezam Uddin and Mohammad Awaz – were sentenced to life in prison.
In July 2020, officers of the law in Cox’s Bazar shot and killed retired army officer Sinha in an egregious abuse of their authority, sparking a public outcry.
Sinha, 36, was a member of the Special Security Force tasked with guarding the prime minister. Sinha had gone into early retirement to pursue his personal interests.
Fifteen suspects, including then-chief of Teknaf police Pradip Kumar Das, were accused of murdering Sinha at a checkpoint in the resort town’s Marine Drive.
After the incident, the lid was blown on Pradip’s chequered past, which involved framing gunfights in the name of drug busts near the Myanmar border in Teknaf. He had similarly tried to cover up the killing of Sinha as a ‘gunfight’.

In the wake of the incident, former officers of the armed forces demanded the arrest of all policemen involved.

After Sinha’s murder on July 31, 2020, his sister started a murder case against nine policemen, including Pradip and Inspector Liakat Ali, on Aug 5.

Four and a half months later, on Dec 13, the case’s investigation officer Md Khairul Islam pressed formal charges against the 15 suspects.

The trial opened after they were indicted by Judge Ismail on Jun 27, 2021. In the course of the trial, the court heard 65 testimonies, including nine eyewitness accounts.