A chargesheet was filed against an Assam Police official for firing on a former student leader in Nagaon district, accusing him of drug peddling, while the victim was given a clean chit in the case, police said on Tuesday.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Assam Police said in a statement that the Sub-Inspector Pradip Bania, accused of carrying out a fake encounter, was found guilty and a chargesheet was filed against him before the Chief Judicial Megistrate of Nagaon.
Bania was chargesheeted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Assam Police Act, 2007 “for his complicity in the offence”, said the release from the CID Superintendent of Police.
On the other hand, the police FIR registered on the basis of a complaint by Bania against Kirtti Kamal Bora, the injured former student leader, and Zakir Hussain of Nagaon was advised to be closed after an investigation by the CID sleuths, the release said.
The duo were alleged to be drug peddlers and Bania had claimed in the complaint that drugs were recovered from their possession.
“The said case was also investigated by CID, Assam. On completion of the investigation, the case was returned in Final Report,” the CID SP said.
Bora, who was alleged to have been involved in drug peddling, was injured in police firing on January 22, the incident opposition parties and social groups called an effect of the prevailing “police jungle raj”.
They alleged the situation was worse than those prevailing in the 1990s when “secret killings” were rampant. The term ‘secret killings’ refers to the extra-judicial killings in which masked gunmen, suspected personnel of the security forces, used to kill the kin of ULFA leaders.
Police, however, had claimed that the former Nowgong College Students Union general secretary was selling drugs and was shot in the leg after he attacked law enforcers. Disputing the claim, the influential All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) alleged Bora was fired upon after he protested “drunk policemen” beating up a youth.
Facing public anger, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had on January 23 announced a one-man commission of Additional Chief Secretary Paban Kumar Borthakur to probe the circumstances leading to the police firing.
After Borthakur’s report, Bania was suspended, the Anti-Narcotics Squad of Nagaon was disbanded and all the 10 members of the squad were transferred from the district.
The district SP Anand Mishra was also shunted out of Nagaon following a probe in the police firing on the former student leader.
The police then transferred the investigation to the CID wing for an impartial probe into the incident, which created a huge hue-and-cry across the state.
A departmental inquiry by a senior police officer into the role of all policemen involved in the firing incident at Kachalukhowa Tiniali in Nagaon town was also carried out. The report has not been made public yet.
The Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC) had taken cognizance of the incident on its own, and issued a notice to the state’s chief secretary on January 24, asking why the government should not pay a compensation to the injured youth.
At least 54 people have been killed and 139 injured in police action while the accused allegedly trying to flee from custody or attacking the personnel since the BJP government, led by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, assumed office in May 2021.
The high number of shoot-outs whipped up a political furore with the opposition alleging that the Assam Police has turned “trigger happy” and is indulging in “open killings” under the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led regime.
The Assam government on June 20 filed an affidavit before the Gauhati High Court and claimed that “no extra judicial killing” has taken place in the state.
