The families of nine police-firing victims in Assam were paid monetary relief recently following the direction of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The Assam government has paid altogether rupees 45 lakh as relief to the next of kin of the victims, said a statement issued by the NHRC from New Delhi.
The NHRC also pointed out that in all these cases, the State government could not convince the Commission in its response that the encounters were genuine and the police had to open fire in self-defence.
“Out of these, four cases were registered by the Commission in the year 2010 under case numbers 230/3/16/2010-ED, 223/3/3/2010-ED, 79/3/20/2010-ED and 127/3/24/09-10-ED. Two other cases were registered in the year 2011 under case numbers 241/3/15/2011-ED and 26/3/11/2011-ED,” added the NHRC statement.
According to Assam police, all these encounters were of the suspected insurgent/extremists and were carried out by the police personnel alone or in joint operations with security forces in different districts of Assam. The Commission closed these cases in September this year after recording the response from Assam government. Javed Muchahari and Silvestine Borgayari died after police firing in Sonitpur district on 18 September 2010, where the next of kin of both the victims were paid rupees five lakh each. Similarly the incident of police encounter resulting in the death of Robertson Bidar and Daful Sangma took place in Udalguri district on 10 January 2010, where too the close family members of both the victims were paid rupees five lakh each.
The death of Babul Gogoi in police firing was reported from Tinmileghat Poba reserve forest of Dhemaji district on 13 June 2009. Here too the next of kin of the victim was paid rupees five lakh. Four other victim families were also paid rupees five lakh each after the Commission’s prompt intervention.
Among the victims Rajib Basumatary died in police firing in Guwahati on 30 October 2009 and Arup Boruah & Jintu Changmai died in police firing in Sibasagar district on 7 May 2009. Another victim was Nikudin Rabha, whose next of kin was also paid monetary relief of rupees five lakh.
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