Sinha murder pre-planned
Investigators have found that the murder of Maj (retd) Sinha Rashed Khan was pre-planned and they will mention it in the case's charge sheet, which will be submitted to court soon.
As per a plan of Pradeep Kumar Das, then officer-in-charge of Teknaf Police Station, Liaqat Ali, an inspector of the same police station, shot Sinha leaving him dead, highly-placed sources at the Rab, which is probing the murder case, told The Daily Star yesterday.
The sources said the investigators came to the conclusion scrutinising evidence, including footage found from Sinha after his death.
Meanwhile, sources at the Rab headquarters said the investigators would press charges against 13 to 15 people for the murder.
The investigators, however, will drop the name of one accused -- an arrested policeman -- from the case and show him as a witness during trial, said the sources, without going into details.
Lt Col Ashiq Billah, director of Rab's legal and media wing, said the charge sheet was being prepared and it would be submitted to the court soon.
A total of 14 people were arrested between August and September in the case. Since 13-15 people would be named as accused and one arrested cop would be named as witness, it is possible that a new accused could be included in the charge sheet, said Rab sources.
The key accused in the case included Pradeep, Liaqat Ali and sub-inspector of Teknaf Police Station Nandadulal Rakshit. Other accused included three members of the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) -- Assistant Sub-inspector Md Shahjahan and constables Razib and Md Abdullah.
Sinha was killed at an APBn check point on the Cox's-Teknaf highway on July 31. Local police said Inspector Liaqat's team had taken over the check point from the three APBn officers before the incident happened.
Sinha was shooting videos for his YouTube channel at the village of Marishbunia right before he was shot. He had been residing in the area for a month for filming.
The law enforcers claimed that they tried to search the vehicle of Sinha Md Rashed Khan, but the former army official aimed his pistol at them, prompting them to shoot in self-defence.
They also claimed that they seized drugs from the vehicle.
However, witnesses gave different accounts of the incident. They said Sinha got down from his car, put his hands over his head, and then the police members shot him.
Sinha's family termed the incident a cold-blooded murder and launched the legal battle seeking justice.
Later, the case's investigation was handed to Rab.
Meanwhile, Sinha's associates Shipra Debnath and Shahedul Islam Sifat were acquitted in the narcotics cases filed against them by the police following Sinha's killing.
"A narcotics case was filed against Shipra and Sifat in Ramu and Teknaf police stations respectively, while another case was filed against Sifat at Teknaf for obstructing government activity. The investigators submitted reports to the court on Thursday clearing them both," said Lt Col Billah.
Pradeep is in Chattogram jail, where he has been since September 14. The court of Metropolitan Session Judge Ashfaqur Rahman sent him behind bars in a case filed against him and his wife by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for amassing about Tk 3.95 crore illegally.
The rest of the accused are in Cox's Bazar District Jail.
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