Allegations Of Custodial Death, Fake Encounters Land Assam Police In Controversy

New Delhi-based Senior Advocate Arif Jowaddar had filed a PIL in the Supreme Court alleging several such cases of fake encounters had taken place in Assam since May 2021 where at least 90 people have died and 150 were injured. Apart from compensation to the victims, he demanded an independent court-monitored inquiry into the matter by the CBI.

Guwahati(Assam): An allegation of custodial death has landed the Assam Police in yet another s. The fresh allegation came after the family members of the main accused in Dhing rape case approached the Gauhati High Court seeking a detailed investigation into the alleged torture and ‘custodial death’ of the accused.

Hearing the writ petition filed by the father of deceased Tafajjul Islam, a divisional bench headed by Justices Manas Ranjan Pathak and Soumitra Saikia on directed the Home Department of the state government on Monday to file an affidavit on the incident within four weeks.

The bench has also sent notices to the Chief Secretary, Principle Secretary to Home Department, DGP Assam, District Commissioner and Superintendent of Police, Nagaon and the Officer-in-Charge of the Dhing Police station.

It may be mentioned here that Islam was detained by police on August 23 from his residence in Barbheti village under Dhing police station. Later in the morning of August 24, police claimed he died by jumping into a pond while trying to escape from custody while being taken to the crime spot.

“The family members of Tafajjul have alleged that he was arrested on a mistaken identity and he died in police custody due to torture. Police have cooked up the story of his jumping into the pond and subsequent death just to hide the atrocities and torture meted out in custody. It was also alleged that the police had not given any documents related to the arrest memorandum, cause of death, postmortem report and death certificates to the family which are clear violation of the set rules,”advocate Junaid Khalid said.

“According to the family Tafajjul who was arrested for rape and the one who died in police custody are two different persons,” Khalid said.

He said it will be very difficult for Assam Police if the custodial death is proven. The Supreme Court has delivered several verdicts on custodial death.

Allegations of fake encounters and custodial death have once again brought to the fore 80 cases of alleged fake encounters in the state since May 2021.

New Delhi-based Senior Advocate Arif Jowaddar had in the past filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court alleging several such cases of fake encounters had taken place in Assam since May 2021 where at least 90 people have died and 150 were injured. Apart from compensation to the victims, Jowaddar had also demanded an independent court-monitored inquiry by the CBI. He said there is a pattern in all the encounters that have taken place during this period. Most of the encounters take place at night or in the wee hours and the police narrative— the accused have died while trying to escape or snatched weapons from the police—looks identical in all cases .