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.