Assam: HC Dismisses 29-Year-Old ‘Murder’ Case of 5 People

GUWAHATI: The Gauhati High Court ended a 29-year-long legal conflict that was centred on a dispute between the CBI, which indicted seven Army personnel for allegedly killing five Assamese citizens illegally, and the Army court, which found its men not guilty. The victims' families and the Army argued that it was pointless to conduct another investigation after such a long period of time.

When concluding the two habeas corpus petitions, a bench of justices Achintya Malla Bujor Barua and Robin Phukan took into account opposing arguments that further investigation may be pointless because the petitioners claimed that "no further credible materials may be available" and that "the Army authorities' position that because of the passage of time the Army personnel, where the majority of them have retired from service," further investigation may be pointless.

Nonetheless, the bench acknowledged that the five victims died during an Army operation and ordered the Center to compensate each victim's family with Rs 20 lakh within two months "in the interest of justice."

"We are of the view that instead of trying to come to a definitive conclusion as to whether the death was caused in a manner other than acceptable in law, we accept the situation that the deaths of the aforesaid five persons, Prabin Sonowal, Akhil Sonowal, Debajit Biswas, Pradip Dutta, and Bhupen Moran, took place during an Army operation," the HC stated.

The CBI and the Army disagreed over whether or not the five people who were taken by the Army between February 14 and February 17, 1994, from various locations in the Tinsukia district were "killed in a manner other than acceptable in law" or not. Four of the five were students and members of the All Assam Students Union.

In its 2002 report, the CBI concluded that "the encounter theory as claimed by the Army is not believable" and indicted five Army personnel for "firing on the five persons," as well as two senior officers for "planning the operation and ordering the firing." They were also charged with murder, causing the destruction of evidence of the crime, and aiding and abetting the crime.

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