Almost six years after the abduction and subsequent killing of Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) former executive director PC Ram, the family members of the deceased official on Thursday challenged the CBI closure report of the case and appealed to the High Court for a fresh investigation into the case.
This is for the second time that the family members of Ram challenged the closure report of the Central investigating agency. On July last year, a special judicial magistrate’s court here rejected the final report submitted by the CBI in the murder case of the former FCI official and directed the CBI to get the case re-investigated by another efficient official.
“Initially, on June 12, 2012 the CBI submitted a closure report of the case before the court. However, we have submitted evidence before the court regarding the murder of Ram. Ram’s son Pravin Kumar Goutam alleged deliberate lapse in the probe by the CBI. Pravin also claimed that the CBI excluded many important details about his father in its report so as not to implicate officials who were involved in the act. The court, after hearing us, rejected the final report of the CBI and asked for further investigation into the killing,” said Pravin’s counsel and senior advocate of Gauhati High Court Nekibur Zaman.
“However, the CBI carried out the investigation of the case by the same unit and submitted almost the same closure report before the court on April 10 this year. We have today appealed the court for directing the CBI for a fresh probe either by a Special Task Force (STF) or by a different unit of the CBI,” Zaman said.
It may be mentioned here that the top FCI official was kidnapped by Ulfa rebels in April 2007. However, Ram was later killed in crossfire between security personnel and Ulfa hardliners, who were holding him captive, at Borka village in Kamrup district on July 11, 2007.
Praveen had earlier claimed that the security personnel had known about the hideout where the ultras had kept his father and could have saved him easily. He had also submitted pictures related his father’s killings, a copy of the report of the probe into the killing, copies of two post mortem examinations conducted by doctors in Guwahati and Delhi and audio tapes of conversations between abductors and Ram’s family to the court as evidence.
Zaman further said that there is a larger conspiracy behind the killing of Ram and a proper investigation will lead of many big names, including from police and FCI — who were involved in the killing.