Murder most foul

The ghastly murder of a 26-year-old young man in a furniture store at Noonmati in the heart of Guwahati in broad daylight on Friday has not only sent shockwaves across the state, but has also brought to the fore what kind of a situation loss of livelihood caused by the COVID-induced lockdown can create. In the instant case, the young man belonging to an indigenous community of a particular district which has been hit hard by perennial floods and damage to paddyfields by massive sand deposits left behind by the floods, had migrated to the city in search of livelihood. While he reportedly returned to the private business establishment where he had worked before the lockdown, he was hacked to death allegedly by a group of persons who were already working there. While the CID inquiry announced by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will probably reveal the exact motive and the events leading to the gruesome murder, the incident can be discussed also as a glaring example of growing intolerance. More alarmingly, some people are trying to draw a relation of this incident with another one which had rocked Hajo, about 25 km from Guwahati a couple of weeks ago, and identify a particular pattern of crimes. Some others are also trying to analyse it in the lines of several such incidents of mob and group lynching that have occurred in different parts of the state, starting from the murder of a college student in Diphu in 2013, to the lynching of two youth at Dokmoka in June 2018, that of a septuagenarian doctor in a tea estate in Jorhat in 2019, and that of a youth in another tea estate in the same district only two weeks ago. It is but quite natural that the Noonmati incident has triggered off sharp reactions, especially with the victim belonging to an indigenous tribal community. It must be appreciated that the police have promptly arrested the culprits allegedly responsible for the horrible murder, including the owner of the furniture showroom who was apparently present at the spot but allegedly preferred to remain a mute spectator and did not try to save the victim. It is now for the CID of the Assam Police to investigate the incident as promptly and efficiently as possible, while it is also up to the court of law to ensure that the culprits are awarded the most exemplary punishment. While twelve persons have been awarded life sentence for the Diphu murder after seven long years, not much progress has been made in the Dokmoka lynching case despite the government promising a fast-track trial.