The Assam government has filed a detailed affidavit on the police encounters before the Gauhati High Court as sought by it last month.
"The Assam government filed the affidavit yesterday as sought by the high court. The court has now decided to hear the case on Thursday," state Advocate General Devajit Lon Saikia told. The Assam government had on January 25 failed to submit the affidavit and the court, giving it more time, deferred hearing of the case till Tuesday.
Besides the Assam government, state police DGP, law and justice department, National Human Rights Commission and Assam Human Rights Commission have been named as respondents in the PIL filed by advocate Arif Md Yeasin Jwadder. The petitioner sought an enquiry into the encounters by an independent agency such as CBI, SIT or any police team from other states under the supervision of the court.
He has also sought a judicial enquiry by a sitting Judge of the Gauhati High Court in the incidents and monetary compensation to the victims’ families after due verification. Jwadder claimed in the PIL that more than 80 fake encounters between Assam Police and alleged accused have taken place since May last year, when Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took charge, resulting in 28 deaths and more than 48 injuries.
The people killed or injured were not dreaded criminals and the modus operandi of the police had been the same in all the encounters, the PIL claimed. The petitioner doubted the police statement published in newspapers which said that the force had to retaliate in self-defence as the accused had tried to snatch service revolvers of the personnel. According to the petitioner, the injured or dead persons were not militants, and it cannot be the case that all the accused could snatch a service revolver from a trained police officer.
Earlier, Jwadder had filed a complaint about the alleged fake encounters with the National Human Rights Commission in July last year. The NHRC in November 2021 transferred the case to the Assam Human Rights Commission which had also taken suo motu action on the alleged fake encounters and asked for a report from the state government.
PTI Inputs