Two killed in Assam fake encounter, says IG

Officer says he found it out after making his own ‘discreet’ inquiry; Home Ministry ask D-G of CRPF to submit a report

R.R. Bhatnagar

The Union Home Ministry has sought a report from R.R. Bhatnagar, Director-General of the Central Reserve Police Force, after an Inspector-General posted in Northeast India alleged that two alleged militants were killed in a “fake encounter” by a joint squad of security forces in Assam in March.

Rajnish Rai, a 1992-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre, said he conducted a “discreet” inquiry on his own chronicling how a team of the Assam Police, the Army, the CRPF and its jungle warfare unit, CoBRA, and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) conducted the encounter in the Simlaguri area of Chirang district on March 29 and 30, killing what they called were two insurgents of the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit).

Custodial killing

Mr. Rai identified the victims as Lucas Nazary, alias N. Langfa, and David Islary, alias Dayud. He alleged that they were already in the custody of the security forces and the entire encounter was “very likely to be a case of premeditated custodial killing”.

The forces, the IG said, had mentioned in the FIR that the two were killed in an exchange of fire.

In his 13-page report, Mr. Rai alleged that information about the incident and an FIR filed by the joint squad presented a “fictitious account” of the operation to “conceal pre-planned murders of two persons in custody and present it as some brave act of professional achievement”.

Mr. Rai, who is posted in Shillong now, had arrested three IPS officers in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case in which BJP president Amit Shah, then the Home Minister of Gujarat, was named as an accused. A CBI court dropped charges against Mr. Shah in 2014.

“It [report] is with the CRPF D-G and he is examining it. The D-G is expected to send the report to the Home Ministry in a day or two,” Ashok Prasad, Advisor to the Home Ministry, said.

“It was a post-facto enquiry and can be considered primarily for administrative purposes. At best, disciplinary action can be initiated if found correct. He has expressed his opinion. His conclusion will have weightage until it is disputed. Till now, the investigation of the local police is the word of truth,” an official said.

Police case

Mr. Rai, deputy chief of CRPF formations in the northeastern States after the Additional Director-General, sent the April 17 report to the Chief Secretary of Assam and the Chairperson of the Unified Command of security forces, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 4 Corps in Assam and the Director-General of the SSB.

He said as multiple security forces were involved in the incident, “it is necessary to entrust the investigation of this matter to an external independent agency for an unbiased, impartial and thorough investigation”.

“The security forces involved in the joint operation must truly reflect how systems and processes have weakened over a period of time, resulting in commission of such unlawful acts in a planned and coordinated manner. It is absolutely necessary that urgent systemic reforms be initiated to prevent such wrongdoings in future,” Mr. Rai said, in his concluding remarks in the report.