A court in western Assam’s Kokrajhar has issued an arrest warrant against Inspector General of Police Anurag Tankha in connection with the custodial death of a suspected extremist 19 years ago.
Mr. Tankha was the additional superintendent of police of Kokrajhar district in 1999 when Ananta Roy alias Hiranya Deka, a suspected member of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) died in custody. The police officer and his two personal security officers had allegedly thrashed the victim.
‘Serious case’
The Kokrajhar Chief Judicial Magistrate’s order on September 28 said the death of the alleged ULFA man at the Kokrajhar police station lock-up was a “very serious case of inhuman custodial torture”.
The order read: “All the three accused, namely Tankha, presently serving as IGP (Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Cell), Prabin Borah and Ram Nagina Raut are police officials. Considering the seriousness of the offence, the investigation into the case was handed over to CID, Assam. The CID conducted the investigation and ultimately filed the final report finding the case to be true but failed to obtain prosecution sanction against the three accused.”
The CJM said that from the materials on record, “one can easily understand the inhuman circumstances under which the alleged ULFA man died... in police custody”.
Witness’ account
A witness to the torture had in his statement under Section 164 CrPC said the victim asked for water and complained of illness after being beaten up in the lock-up. He became unconscious as no one came to help him and died soon after, the order said.
Noting that Mr. Tankha admitted before the investigating offer that he had entered the police lock-up on the night of October 25, 1999 to interrogate the alleged ULFA member, the CJM said: “Thus one can understand the circumstances under which the victim had to die in police custody without his fundamental right to life as guaranteed in the Constitution of India under Article 21 and his legal right of not being tortured in police custody.”
