Witnesses corroborate CRPF IG’s account of alleged fake encounter in Assam

Reporting a fake encounter in Assam’s Chirang district,Rajnish Rai, Inspector General (IG) of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), North East sector, had cited witnesses who identified the two men who were killed in the encounter as those picked up from the village of D-Kalling the night of the encounter. The two men killed in the alleged encounter, Lucas Narzary and David Islary, were suspected to be members of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland(Songbijit), or NDFB(S) faction. An INSAS rifle, a revolver, a Chinese grenade and live ammunition was supposedly retrieved from them.

Interviewing the witnesses, The Indian Express reported today that they corroborated Rai’s version of events. Binu Basumatary, wife of Ranjit Basumatary, residents of Digoldong ( the official name of D-Kalling village) told IE that the two men arrived at their house on the night of March 29, unarmed. Binu and her family made arrangements for them to sleep in the house where their elder son slept. “While Khwrwmdao [Binu’s son] slept in the first room, the two slept in the other room,” she said.

Soon, however, security forces had surrounded their house, she claimed. “About an hour or so later, there were loud knocks on our door, and even as my husband and I came out, we saw that our house was surrounded by soldiers. They had tied the hands of the two men as well as those of my son behind their backs and were dragging them away. I cried out and asked them with folded hands to spare my son, which they did, and took the other two away,” said Binu.

Once the security forces left, the couple narrated the incident to their neighbour Thaneswar Mushahary. “They told me about how two persons Ranjit knew from before had arrived, and how some soldiers came and took them away,” Mushahary told IE. “We did not sleep that night. The next morning, news came about two persons being killed in an encounter. Later, it turned out that the two were the same who were picked up from Ranjit’s house.” 

In his report to CRPF headquarters in Delhi, Rai had requested a thorough investigation into the encounter.