He was a key sector commander of the Mukti Bahini during the Bangladesh Liberation War.

[4] In 1950, after completing his graduation, Dutta joined the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul.

After completing his YO Course from Quetta Staff College, he was posted in Hyderabad, Sindh as a Platoon Leader and later as Company 2 i/c.

During the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War, then Major Dutta served as a Battalion Commander in the East Pakistan Rifles.

In 1970, Major Dutta was serving in the Quartermaster Branch of the 12th Infantry Division at Quetta.

[6] After Mujibur Rahman's 7 March speech, Dutta mentally prepared himself for a possible war.

However, as the Pakistani occupation army launched the Operation Searchlight, Dutta wasn't initially aware of the widespread repression and torture.

At that time he attended a meeting of the political leaders at the house of his neighbour Colonel Abdur Rab.

In late 1973, he ordered BDR to attack holdouts of Chakma separatists who had collaborated with the Pakistan Army and ordered expulsion of civilians and burning of huts in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Chitta Ranjan Dutta along with minority leaders from other communities founded the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council.