Blot on Assam Police

Sunday was definitely a very bad day for the Assam Police. This newspaper on Sunday had two prominent front-page news stories, both showing the country’s most reputed police force in very bad light. Of the two, however, one news story is slightly in the positive line, showing how the Assam Police have acted by taking strong action against a senior officer who had brought a bad name to it. One news story is about the dismissal from service of Raj Mohan Ray, a former SP of Darrang district. The SP, a 2002 batch officer, had allegedly hushed up the gruesome murder on May 11, 2022, of a minor girl working as domestic help in an SSB jawan’s house at Dhula near Mangaldoi. The sensational murder, which the district police set up had initially projected as an ordinary death case, took a different turn when chief minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma himself visited the victim’s house three months later. The accused, SSB Jawan, who had allegedly also sexually abused the minor girl, had reportedly paid Rs 5 lakh to the police in order to cover up the case. What also came up during the CID probe is that the then district Additional SP Rupam Phukan, then Pub-Mangaldoi Circle Officer Ashirwad Hazarika, and three doctors of the Mangaldoi Civil Hospital, namely Dr Ajanta Bordoloi, Dr Arun Deka, and Dr Anupam Sarma, were also arrested for their connivance in covering up the murder. While the SP was also arrested and subsequently placed under suspension, a social media post by the Assam Police DG on Saturday said that former SP Ray was not only dismissed from service but also disqualified for future employment. What other penal action the former SP has been awarded is not immediately known. But he definitely deserves more punishment, which should be exemplary in nature. Now about the other news story, which says that 59 Assam Police officers—sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspectors—have been sustaining themselves rather mysteriously without receiving salary for long periods of time. While some have not received their salary for a few months, a few have not received their salary for even four years. The reason is simple: these officers have not deposited their case diary, service pistol, ammunition, etc., when they were transferred from one place to another. Rules say an officer gets a pay certificate after depositing his or her case diary, service pistol, ammunition, etc., and only on submission of this certificate does the officer become eligible for drawing salary. This newspaper has reported that while the state home department has discovered that such a large number of officers have not drawn their salaries for long periods, it has not been able to figure out how these officers are meeting their regular expenses, including maintaining their respective families. Though the home department has been unable to figure this out, it appears that the citizens know the ‘mystery’ behind it. Once discovered by the state home department, it could be another blot on the Assam Police.