Gauhati High Court adjourns hearing on 'fake encounters' in State

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The State Government has, in its latest updated affidavit filed before the Gauhati High Court in response to a PIL over alleged fake encounters, stated that 171 incidents of police firings and four custodial deaths have taken place in Assam since May 21 last year. Hearing of the case has been adjourned till December 8.

The PIL in question has been filed by activist and lawyer Arif Jwadder, who has sought an inquiry into the encounters by an independent agency such as CBI, SIT or any police team from other states under the supervision of the Gauhati High Court.

The petitioner argued before the court that independent investigations have not been done as mandated as per the judgment in the PUCL (People's Union for Civil Liberties) versus State of Maharashtra case. The petitioner stated that only magisterial enquiries were carried out in 92 incidents, forensic tests were done in 48 incidents and ballistic tests were done in 40 incidents. He question as to how independent investigation could be done without carrying out complete forensic and ballistic tests in all the cases.

Besides the State Government, Assam's DGP, the Law and Justice Department, the National Human Rights Commission and Assam Human Rights Commission have been named as respondent in the PIL filed by Jwadder. According to the petitioner, the dead or the injured persons were not militants and it cannot be the case that all the accused persons could snatch a service revolver from a trained police officer.

On July 29, the High Court had directed the State Government to submit a detailed and updated investigation report for every encounter case within six weeks.

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