A Chittagong court has rejected a prayer of Pradeep Kumar Das, former officer-in-charge (OC) of Teknaf police station, for speaking to his relatives over the telephone from jail.
Metropolitan Senior Special Sessions Judge Sheikh Ashfaqur Rahman rejected the petition on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Pradeep, also one of the key accused in Major (retd) Sinha Md Rashed Khan’s murder case, was produced before the court amid tight security in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), said ACC lawyer Mahmudul Haque.
“On behalf of the accused, the defence counsel filed a petition with the court to give him a chance to speak to his relatives over the phone from the jail.
"However, the IG Prison issued a circular following the Covid-19 outbreak in the country that the militants, hardened criminals, and extortionists will be barred from speaking to their relative over the phone from jail. That’s why the court rejected the prayer,” said the ACC lawyer.
Advocate Rana Das Gupta had appeared for Pradeep and filed the petition.
Previously, a Chittagong ordered to freeze and attach all moveable and immovable properties of Pradeep and his wife until further order in the graft case filed by the ACC.
On September 14, Pradeep was shown arrested in the case filed for accumulating wealth illegally.
On August 23, the ACC had filed it against Pradeep and his wife for amassing wealth worth Tk4 crore from unknown sources.
The ACC's investigation against Pradeep started back in 2018.
On April 20 in 2019, Pradeep and his wife were given the notice to submit a statement of their assets.
Pradeep and his wife submitted their statement in June 2019.
Following their statement, and after a long investigation, the ACC found evidence that Pradeep and his wife had illegally amassed assets worth more than Tk4 crore.
Pradeep has also been sued in a case filed over the murder of Major (retd) Sinha, who was killed in police firing at Baharchhara police check-post in Cox's Bazar on July 31.
