Dev was born in the village of Lauta of the Panchakhanda Pargana (currently Beanibazar Upazila) of Sylhet District, British India (present-day Bangladesh) on 1 February 1907.

[1] After his father's death at an early age, Dev was raised by the local Christian missionaries.

Dev passed the Entrance Examination in first division from Biani Bazar High English School in 1925.

His Doctoral thesis was titled Reason, intuition and reality, and for this, he received a PhD degree from Calcutta University in 1944.

[2] Dev was elected the general secretary of Pakistan Philosophical Congress in the 1960s and held the post till his death in 1971.

Dev was a life-long bachelor, although he adopted a son Jyoti Prakash Dutta and a daughter, Rokeya Begum Sultana.

Dev was assassinated along with the husband of his adopted daughter by Pakistan army personnel involved in 1971 Dhaka University massacre on the black night of 25 March.

At that time, Dev was residing in a university quarter near Jagannath Hall with his adopted daughter Rokeya Sultana and her husband Mohammad Ali.

His adopted daughter Rokeya Begum's husband Mohammad Ali came to rescue him and recited Kalima to calm the soldiers.