Assam: Rs 25 lakh paid to fake encounter victims' kin

The Assam government has complied with the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission and paid Rs 25 lakh as monetary relief to the next of kin of five men killed in an encounter on June, 2009 in the Dohikata Kadaldhowa reserve forest in a joint operation of the Assam police, the army and the Central Reserve Police Force, informed the NHRC office. 

The commission, on the basis of the inquest, post-mortem and magisterial inquiry reports and other material on record had observed that this was an execution, not an encounter, and a criminal and grievous violation of human rights.

It also said that the evidence from the post-mortems shows that the five men were shot from the back, and not in an exchange of fire.

No attempt had been made to establish, through the ballistics and forensics tests that are standard operating procedure for any efficient police investigation, that these men had handled or fired any of the weapons allegedly recovered from the site. 

Unconvinced by the explanations given by the Assam government, the commission had recommended that it pay Rs 5 lakh each to the next of kin of five men killed in the fake encounter -- Allauddin, Sahjamal Hoque, Promtone Sangma, Jahangir and Salim Khan.

The State government was also directed to send a proof of payment to the commission. The commission had registered a case no 75/3/6/2010-ED on intimation, dated October 23, 2009, received from the ADGP, Assam police, on the encounter in June, 2009.