All 15 accused of the sensational Major (retd) Sinha Rashed Khan murder case have been produced before a Cox's Bazar Court Monday ahead of the verdict.
The accused are: Former OC of Teknaf Police Station Pradeep Kumar Das, former inspector of Baharchhara Police Investigation Centre Liakat Ali, former sub-inspector Nanda Dulal Rakshit, former constables Safanur Karim, Kamal Hossain, Abdullah Al-Mamun and Mohammad Mostafa, former APBn sub-inspector Mohammad Shahjahan, former constable Mohammad Rajib and Mohammad Abdullah, former Teknaf police constable Rubel Sharma, former assistant sub-inspector Sagar Deb, police informants Nurul Amin, Nezam Uddin and Mohammad Ayaz.
On 31 July 2020, Major (retd) Sinha Rashed Khan was gunned down at a police check post on the Cox's Bazar marine drive while he was driving towards the capital. On that night, police arrested Sinha's co-traveller Shahadul Islam Sefat and another teammate Shipra Debnath from a local resort, and filed a drug case against them.
The trio had been in the tourist city for months to film a travel documentary. Investigation later showed Sinha was murdered as he found out local police's involvement in narcotics smuggling and other crimes in Cox's Bazar.
The killing prompted a countrywide protest and outcry as the then army and police chiefs rushed to Cox's Bazar to hold an unprecedented joint press conference.
Following the incident, extrajudicial killings received unprecedented public attention and the number of extrajudicial killing incidents dropped, according to the British foreign ministry's human rights report on Bangladesh in July 2020.
On the eve of the verdict, Sinha's co-traveller Sefat said, "May no one die in police crossfire anymore."
