The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has questioned the genuineness of an encounter that took place in Assam about three years back and directed the State Government to pay Rs5 lakh to the next of kin of the victim as monetary relief.
The incident, which the police and security forces claimed as an encounter, took place at Doimoguri village in Assam’s Sonitpur district on June 23, 2010. One Rajib Basumatary (25) was killed in the ‘encounter’, which was carried out jointly by Assam Police and CRPF personnel.
Although the police said that several cadre of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) were hiding in an house in the village and fired at the forces leading them to retaliate — in which the victim was killed, yet the Commission asked the genuineness of the encounter as there were only two spent bullets recovered from the house.
The NHRC took up the case after the deceased’s brother sought its intervention into it and denied the police version that his brother was a cadre of the NDFB or any terrorist outfit.
“According to the seizure list sent by the police, all items recovered from the dead bodies were found in “a small house under the village of Doimoguri”. The firing therefore took place from within the house and, according to police, several men fired at them. If so, there would have been a large number of spent cartridges in that house. How would the police explain the recovery of only two spent cartridgesIJ” asked the NHRC.
The Commission, which had received copies of the inquest, post-mortem and magisterial enquiry report, also asked the Superintendent of Police of the concerned district to clarify whether a test conducted in a ballistics laboratory to confirm that the weapon had been fired by the victim and whether recovered spent cartridges had been fired from it.
The Commission further observed that no report was sent to the Commission to confirm whether the dead man had handled the weapon and that this could have been established only if their fingerprints were matched in a forensic laboratory with those on the pistol allegedly recovered from the house.
The Commission also said that the Government of Assam, despite having been given sufficient time, did not respond to the questions raised by the Commission. And therefore, the Commission held it that the State Government had no views on the matter and recommended the monetary relief to the victim’s family.