Tag: assam dgp

Assam: Police Station in Nagaon Set on Fire Over Alleged Custodial Death

The Nagaon administration on Sunday demolished the homes of those who had set the Batadraba police station on fire a day earlier over the alleged custodial death of Shafiqul Islam.

New Delhi: An incident of alleged custodial death sparked violent protests in Assam’s Nagaon on Saturday evening. An angry mob later set a police station on fire, critically injuring three police personnel.

The Nagaon administration in Assam on Sunday demolished the homes of those who had set the Batadraba police station in the district on fire a day earlier over the alleged case of custodial death.

The police said that the row erupted after the death of Shafiqul Islam, a fish seller, who was arrested in the Salanbari area after he was found to be creating a ruckus in a drunken state the previous night. NDTV reported that the police sources claimed that police from Batadraba station had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000 and a duck from Islam.

Islam’s family claimed that Islam was beaten to death by the police after he was unable to pay the bribe. Some of his family members claimed that when they went to meet him at the police station, they were told that he was unwell and had been admitted to a hospital. But his body had already been kept in a morgue by the time his family reached the hospital.

Later, the family allegedly led a mob of residents to protest at the police station. The confrontation escalated, following which the mob set the police station on fire.

Responding to the incident, Assam’s Director-General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta released a statement that said Islam was arrested after the police received a complaint that he was drunk. “He complained of sickness and was taken to two hospitals, one after the other. Unfortunately, he died,” he said.

Islam had been arrested “after receiving a complaint that he was drunk,” according to police. A medical check-up was carried out and Islam was released the next day and “handed over to his wife”. “He complained of sickness and was taken to two hospitals, one after the other, unfortunately he died,” Mahanta said.

Charred remains of the commodities at the Batadraba police station in Nagaon district on May 21, 2022. Photo: PTI

“We take the unfortunate death of Islam very seriously and have put the OC of Batadraba thana on suspension and rest of the staff closed. If there is any foul play at our end, we mean to find that and punish the guilty according to the law. No two thoughts. So don’t think this is a simple action-reaction incident. There’s much more to it,” a top policeman said hours after the police station was torched.

Mahanta assured in one of his tweets that the authorities will “not let go of any police personnel who’s found guilty…”

He, however, warned those who were involved in burning down the police station, “…we will act even tougher against elements who think that they can escape the Indian justice system, by burning down police stations. We will simply not allow this. Let this be a warning to all antisocial/criminal elements.”

As Space for ‘Andolanjeevis’ Shrinks, Assam DGP’s Rebuke of Protestors Is Not Unexpected

Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta’s admonition of those who applied for jobs in the police department and demanded results on time reflects the demand for a republic of assent.

In what is reminiscent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘andolanjeevi’ sledge, the Assam Director-General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta was recently seen angry with those who dissent.

Referring to candidates demanding results on time, the top cop commented, “Assam Police does not need (as its future members) people who are involved in unnecessary and illegal activities. Assam Police needs responsible, disciplined folks… Many in the police force are in hardship, their accommodation is poor and they have to tread the jungles for operations, have to stay there for days. Many sipahis don’t get their salaries for long periods due to various reasons.”

“Does this mean they will protest?” the DGP asked, rhetorically.

The statement is quite interesting: it acknowledges the inadequate ways in which his department treats its subordinates, yet presupposes that the most natural response from these burnt offerings must be to accept. Or else, they will have to be ready to follow Tej Bahadur Yadav’s trajectory. The possibility of dissent does not exist. Hidden in this verbal almsgiving by the boss, instead, lies a different possibility – that of a recognition of his benevolence.

BSF soldier Tej Bahadur Yadav. Photo: Facebook

“Assam Police doesn’t need these men who protest for these reasons. Because, when they come, they will spoil Assam Police,” the top cop added. These utterances hint at the dangerous situation that the country is in – your background check must prove that you don’t dare to claim your basic rights not just after you have joined work, but in your entire life that preceded.

Also read: Slam Campaigns, Water Cannon, Lathicharge and Other Elements of PM Modi’s ‘Tapasya’

The protestors that the DGP was referring to were job applicants, not job-holding police personnel.

The question needs to be asked, if the DGP, as a Ramjas College student in the 1980s, had joined a Delhi University students’ protest and found himself blacklisted by the Union Public Service Commission, would he complain? Where would he be today?

New India: Fall in line or face consequences  

The unfortunate statement must be seen as part of a series of such threats and opinions pronounced in the last few years. Beginning with Jawaharlal Nehru University and quickly spreading into many other educational institutions, the act of thinking is being actively discouraged. Any demonstration – public or private – of dissent is not just brutally quelled, but sufficiently humiliated so that fewer people dare to think critically the next time.

Also read: Narendra Modi Says Focus on Duties and Forget Rights, But He’s Let India Down on All 11 Duties

Professors are being routinely arrested without bail in sight. The MPhil degree has been scrapped. PhD seats are being drastically cut down. Because an environment of research, questions, theses, arguments, counterarguments must not be encouraged. It is a threat. It is in this light that the DG’s remarks must be read.

But he must also be told about a brilliant essay that his contemporary at Delhi University, Amitav Ghosh, wrote about the 1984 Sikh massacre. Ghosh recounted a passage from V.S. Naipaul where the latter describes a demonstration and how, despite longing to join the crowd and sympathising with their cause, he just observes it marching past. He realises that he is not someone who joins, but only watches with solidarity.

Writing about a protest organised against the 1984 pogroms, Ghosh writes, “I remembered the passage because I believed that I, too, was not a joiner, and in Naipaul’s pitiless mirror I thought I had seen an aspect of myself rendered visible. Yet as this forlorn little group marched out of the shelter of the compound I did not hesitate for a moment: without a second thought, I joined.”

One hopes that if not today, then after his retirement in a few months, Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, who after all made a national award-winning biopic of a dissenter, will also walk down the stairs and merge with the crowd asking real and urgent questions of the government.

Jyotirmoy Talukdar is a senior writing fellow at the Centre for Writing and Communication, Ashoka University.

Assam: Former Militant Found Dead, Extrajudicial Killing Alleged

Santosh Hojai, a former militant turned local contractor in Dima Hasao district, was picked up on April 24 by five armed men in plainclothes from his residence.

New Delhi: In a sensational case of alleged extra-judicial killing, the burnt body of Santosh Hojai, a former militant turned local contractor in Assam’s Dima Hasao district, has been found six days after he was said to have been picked up by five armed men in plainclothes from his residence.

Hours after Hojai’s body was located by national highway 27 in the Lailing reserve forest on April 30, his family categorically named Surja Kanta Morang, a deputy superintendent of police posted in the district, as having a hand in the killing. Morang has been posted in the district for close to three years now.

Neither the government nor the state police has so far issued any statement on the allegation. Local reports said a senior police official has been sent to the district to probe the matter. The Gauhati high court has also sought a report from the state director general of police (DGP) on the matter.

Thirty-six-year-old Hojai, a member of the insurgent group Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) before it laid down arms in 2013, was a local social worker and a contractor. He had joined the BJP some time ago. Hojai was a father of three children including a toddler.

Speaking to The Wire from her residence at Harangajao, a village situated 37 km from district headquarters Haflong, Hojai’s wife Jayanta Hojai claimed, “CCTV footage from the Maibang petrol pump showed the police officer Moran buying diesel in a jerry can. However, before that news reached me, I saw the photograph of the officer on Facebook and recognised him at once as one of the five people who came to our house in a Bolero car with no number plate on April 24 around 6 pm and kidnapped my husband. I am sure that diesel was used to burn my husband.”

She said, “After Hojai was taken away, I rushed to the Harangajao police station to file an FIR. The local OC refused to accept it, told me my husband is safe and will return home the next day. I went back home, but my husband didn’t come the next day.”

“I also wondered how could the men come home when no private persons have been allowed to move around freely during the lockdown,” she added.

Thorough probe demanded

Uttam Langthansa, the president of the All Dimasa Students Union (ADSU), told The Wire from Haflong, “On being informed about his disappearance on April 25, we went to the SP of Haflong, Bir Bikram Gogoi, who assured us that a search will be conducted to find him. We, on our own, also began looking for him but were unsuccessful. However, on April 30, we received a call from some villagers near the reserve forest that there was a body lying half-buried in the forest. We drove for about two-and-a-half hours to reach the spot. With the local administration’s help, it was identified to be Santosh Hojai’s body. It was a decomposed, burnt body.”

The union has demanded a thorough probe into the matter – either by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the National Investigating Agency (NIA).

Jayanta Hojai said the local police station registered the FIR when she went there the second time on the evening of April 25, after the ADSU members met the SP. “However, with no information about him, I thereafter filed an appeal in the Gauhati high court seeking a directive to the police to find him. After his body was found on April 30, I filed an affidavit naming the police officer,” she said.

On April 30, the HC asked the state DGP to file a report on the case on May 4. W hen asked about the progress in the case, Hojai’s lawyer D. Thaosen said, “The hearing took place today, but we are yet to get any information about any order issued on the matter. Due to COVID-19, the reports are sent via email and the hearings held through video conferencing. So it is taking a bit more time than usual. We should get it by the end of the day.” The report will be updated after the order is made public.

Thaosen, however, said, “The post mortem report is yet to come. We are hoping the family will get it in a day or two.”

The ADSU president Langthasa stated, “The CCTV footage featuring Moran buying the diesel in a jerry can which looked like having a 15-20 litre capacity, is crucial, considering his wife has also claimed to have seen him in her house. The people here are shocked on hearing about the killing.” On April 30, when his body was being taken with police escort from the Haflong civil hospital to the Silchar Medical College for post mortem, hundreds reportedly gathered on the highway, raising slogans and demanding justice.

Visuals from the CCTV footage.

Langthasa said, “We are demanding a detailed probe into the matter by a central agency. For this, the chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who is also the home minister, will have to refer the case. We are hoping he will do so.”

Former MLA Samarjit Haflongbar has also reportedly demanded a CBI probe into the matter in an email sent to the chief minister. “Apart from several injuries on body, the eyeballs and tongue were also outside of its actual positions, besides his toe and nails were removed which the postmortem report shall clearly mention. Considering the nature of death the investigation requires forensic laboratory test to identify the cause of death. A section of people of Harangajao area have seen the white Bolero plying on the road without its nameplate carrying Police personnel. Hence, involvement of particular Police personnel headed by DSP Surjyakanta Moran is suspected,” Haflongbar reportedly said in the letter.

Former DHC chairman Dilip Nunisa too has demanded a CBI probe.

‘Illegal crackdown’

Meanwhile, hours before Hojai’s body was found, Assam Prabajan Virodi Manch convenor and Supreme Court lawyer Upamanyu Hazarika issued a press statement in Guwahati accusing the government of “using the lockdown to illegally crackdown on those who criticise the government by instituting false cases or kidnapping citizens without taking recourse to law.”

Besides giving Hojai’s example, Hazarika also gave one more “illustrative” instance of Pankaj Saikia who was arrested “by the army at 10 pm on March 22”. He said he was handed over to local police two days later in violation of the rules and no intimation was given to his family about his detention. When his case came up for hearing on April 22, the judge in his bail order “observed that except for a Facebook post, which was critical of the government (in regard to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act), no evidence has been furnished (against him).”

The Manch has filed a complaint at the Assam Human Rights Commission and the state Police Accountability Commission for a thorough probe into Hojai’s death.