Assam: Recovery of severed heads evokes protests

Recovery of two severed human heads by police near a private hospital and heart research centre at Sonapur near Guwahati sparked mob fury on Tuesday afternoon with angry locals setting fire to a portion of the hospital.

Police informed that the severed heads were detected near the hospital and research institute owned by heart surgeon Dr Dhaniram Baruah. Some hospital staff have been picked up for questioning, police added.

An enraged group of locals went berserk inside the hospital complex and set fire to a portion of the building in presence of police demanding arrest of Dr Baruah who was away in Bangalore.

The mob related the recovery of the human heads to Sunday's gruesome murder of six members of a family at Jogdol village near the hospital. The tension was palpable in the area since the murder came to the light.

Police on Sunday had recovered bodies all the six family members, including headless bodies of two minors. Those who were murdered were identified as Harakanta Doley, his wife Sapna Doley (40), their  daughters Sabita (12), Punita (11), son Atul (9) and Harakanta's six-year-old nephew Tukul.

Bodies of Atul and Tukul were found headless. Dr Baruah told a local TV channel in Guwahati over phone from Bangalore that he had been away for some research work and termed the recovery of headless human bodies near his hospital and subsequent attack on the institution as part of a bigger conspiracy against him.

He vowed to lodge a formal complaint once he was back in the state.