Sacked Teknaf OC Pradip gets 20 years in prison, wife 21 years in graft case

The two were convicted of amassing illegal wealth and will have their assets seized

Sacked Teknaf police chief OC Pradip Kumar Das is brought before a Chattogram court on Wednesday, Jul 27, 2022, to hear the verdict in a case against him for amassing illegal wealth. He was s

Sacked Teknaf police chief Pradip Kumar Das has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, while his wife Chumki Karon has been sentenced to 21 years in a case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission over illegally amassing wealth.

The court of Chattogram Division Special Judge Munshi Abdul Majid has also ordered the state to seize their assets in the verdict delivered on Wednesday.

Pradip had previously been sentenced to death over the murder of retired army major Sinha Md Rashed Khan.

The court indicted Pradip and his wife in the ACC case for illegally amassing wealth in December 2021 and ordered the authorities to issue an arrest warrant against Chumki.

The ACC charged Pradip and Chumki with amassing more than Tk 23.5 million beyond known sources of income and money laundering. They also concealed information on the assets of Tk 4.9 million.

The ACC prosecuted Pradip and Chumki on Aug 23, 2020 after finding substance in the allegations that Pradip had earned a fortune through “bribes and corruption”.

The assets mentioned in the charge-sheet include a six-storey building in the port city’s Patharghata, a half-building at Solosahar, 45 Bhori of gold jewellery (1 Bhori = 11.664 grams), cars, a microbus and an apartment in Cox’s Bazar.

On Sept 1, 2021, the court formally accepted the charges against the couple submitted by the national anti-graft agency.

The court indicted OC Pradip and his wife in the ACC case for illegally amassing wealth in December of last year and ordered the authorities to issue an arrest warrant against Chumki, a past fugitive.

Chumki surrendered to the court on May 23 and requested bail. Her bail petition was denied.

In July 2020, police in Cox's Bazar shot and killed retired army officer Sinha in an egregious abuse of their authority, sparking a public outcry.

A Cox’s Bazar court sentenced two former police personnel -- OC Pradip Kumar Das and Liakat Ali -- to death for the murder of Sinha on Jan 31.