Guwahati: The Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has directed the state government to submit the inquiry report on police shootings from five districts by November 1. The commission had on July 7 taken suo moto cognisance of frequent police shootings in the state, and asked the state government to conduct an inquiry into circumstances leading to the killing of 12 accused persons within a month.
On August 16, the state Home and Political Department had sought an additional six weeks' time as many district authorities were yet to submit the reports. The commission, in an order issued on Thursday, noted that the Home and Political Department had informed it that magisterial inquiry reports submitted by the deputy commissioners of five districts and superintendents of police of seven districts were received. Further, reports from deputy commissioners of Sivasagar and Mongaon were yet to be received.
"The commission after scrutiny found that except for the report from Kamrup Metropolitan, those from Deputy Commissioner of Karbi Anglong, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Nagaon and Barpeta were not received by it," the AHRC said. The commission, therefore, directed the Home and Political Department to instruct the remaining districts to furnish the magisterial inquiry reports by November 1.
Since May 10, 26 accused persons have been killed in police shootings in Assam and 43 injured. The police claim that they were shot after they "tried to flee" from custody. The spate of police shootings come after BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma took over as chief minister of the state and gave "full operational liberty" to the forces to fight against criminals "within the ambit of law".
PTI
