Police have been directed to handover the 29 items – including the computers of Shipra and Sifat – seized over the murder of Major (rtd) Sinha Rashed Khan to Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
The court of Cox's Bazar Judicial Magistrate Tamanna Farah gave the direction after hearing RAB’s plea regarding the matter at around 3pm on Wednesday.
Cox's Bazar Court Inspector Pradip Kumar Das confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.
Earlier on Monday, Lt Col Ashik Billah, director of RAB’s legal and media wing, held a press conference at the Jaltaranga Resort in Cox's Bazar regarding the issue.
He said: “The 29 items seized over the killing of retired Bangladesh Army Major Sinha Md Rashed Khan, including the computers of Shipra Rani Debnath and Shahedul Islam Sifat – the two main witnesses of the incident – are kept in Cox's Bazar’s Ramu police station.
“RAB will take custody of those through the court because the computers are very important for the investigation.”
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Shipra and her lawyer – who went to Cox’s Bazar to sue two superintendents of police and 150 others under the Digital Security Act – decided not to file the case at the moment as the High Court has already fixed Thursday for delivering the order on a writ petition that challenged two police officials for posting Shipra’s photographs along with provocative comments on social media.
They were on their way to the Ramu police station when suddenly they decided to return to their hotel without lodging the case.
On Tuesday night, Md Khairuzzaman, OC of Cox's Bazar Sadar Model police station, refused to take Shipra’s case and instead suggested they file it with Ramu police station or with the cyber-crimes tribunal.
Shahadul Islam Sefat was also present there with his lawyer but did not wish to speak to journalists on account of being distraught.
Mostafijur Rahman, SP of Satkhira, and Md Mizanur Rahman Shelley, SP (Dhaka Metro -- South) of the Police Bureau of Investigation, were supposed to be made accused in the case along with 100-150 others.
Speaking to Dhaka Tribune, Shipra's lawyer Mahbubul Alam Tipu said: “On Sunday, Supreme Court lawyer Manoj Kumar Bhowmik filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking action against two police officers for posting personal pictures of Shipra Debnath on Facebook.
“The bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam has set Thursday for passing the order after a virtual hearing on the issue on Wednesday. This is why we refrained from filing the case.”
On Tuesday, a Cox's Bazar court granted seven-day remand for three members of Armed Police Battalion (APBn) each over their involvement with the killing of Major (rtd) Sinha.
The arrestees were APBn Sub-Inspector Shajahan and constables Rajib and Abdullah.
All of them are from APBn Cox's Bazar-14 and were on-duty at Shamlapur Police Investigation Centre on the night of July 31 when Major (rtd) Sinha was killed at Shamlapur check-post under Baharchhara union in Teknaf.
"We have come a long way in investigating the murder of Sinha. Today [August 18] the accused OC Pradeep Kumar Das, Inspector Liakat Ali and Sub-Inspector Nanda Dulal Rakshit who are on remand, were taken to RAB custody for quizzing," said Lt Col Ashik Billah.
Sharmin Shahriar Ferdous, elder sister of Sinha, filed a case at Teknaf Senior Judicial Magistrate Court on August 5.
On August 6, seven of the accused surrendered in court, which sent them to jail after scrapping their bail pleas.
Major (retd) Sinha along with Sifat and Shipra went to Cox’s Bazar for making a documentary film on travelling.
Sifat along with Sinha was staying in a resort in Himchari from where police detained Shipra.
Seven police personnel, including Teknaf police station officer-in-charge Pradeep Kumar Das and Inspector Liakat Ali, were suspended in connection with the killing of Sinha.
They all were accused in a case filed over Sinha’s murder by his sister with a Cox’s Bazar court.
