More than 66 killed, 158 hurt in Police custody during Sarma tenure

Guwahati: Sixty-six accused were killed and 158 others injured in police custody after Himanta Biswa Sarma became the Chief Minister of Assam in May 2021, the Assembly was told on Monday.

In a written reply to a question by AIUDF MLA Ashraful Hussain, Sarma said that 35 accused were killed and 12 others injured in the gunfight with the police between May 10, 2021 and February 28, 2023.
He further said that 26 people were killed and 146 injured due to police firing.

“Apart from them, five accused were killed in an accident when they tried to escape from police custody,” said Sarma, who also holds the home portfolio.
During the debate on the motion of thanks to the governor’s address, AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam asked why the police force had become “so ineffective” that whenever an accused escaped, he was shot dead. .

“Government is conducting fake encounters. The cases of Kenaram Basumatary and Kirti Kamal Bora prove that fake encounters are happening in Assam. The Governor should know this,” he added.
A CID probe into the death of a man, suspected to be a dacoit, in a police encounter on February 24 in Assam’s Udalguri district confirmed that it was a case of “mistaken identity”.
Investigations concluded that the dead bandit was not dacoit Kenaram Boro alias Kenaram Basumatary, but a man identified as Dimbeswar Muchahary, whose family claimed he was a “small-time farmer” but the police claimed that he was a “hardened criminal”.
Student leader Kirti Kamal Bora, who was allegedly involved in drug peddling, was injured in police firing on January 22 last year, an incident which opposition parties and social groups called the prevailing “police rule”. The effect of
A one-member commission headed by then Additional Chief Secretary Paban Kumar Borthakur found that the policemen involved in the firing were at fault and that Bora was not carrying any drugs at the time of the incident.