Guwahati, Nov 11: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has asked superintendents of police across districts to reopen and re-examine all cases of unnatural deaths registered in police stations over the past one year.
Briefing media persons here on Friday, the chief minister, while referring to the findings of a special investigation team of CID Assam and ‘sabotage of evidence in a case concerning the unnatural death of a minor girl’ in Darrang district, said that during the recent SP’s conference, “the superintendents of police of all districts were asked to reopen and re-examine cases of all unnatural deaths (claimed to be either murder, accident deaths or by suicide) over the past one year.”
He further said the move was prompted by the fact that it was difficult to rely solely on the data provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) “as there are cases of unnatural deaths caused by floods in the state as well.”
“It was also decided at the SP’s conference that henceforth, in such suspicious cases, the SP and DIG will visit the sites of occurrence and until and unless they are satisfied, the cases will not be closed,” Sarma said.
It may be noted that at least three police officers, a magistrate and three senior doctors have been arrested by the criminal investigation department (CID) of Assam Police following a thorough and detailed investigation, after certain lapses in investigation by the Dhula police station in the case of unnatural death of a minor girl came to the fore.
Notably, the case was registered at Dhula police station on June 12, 2022 against main accused, Krishna Kamal Baruah, and another for alleged murder and rape of a 13-year old girl who was employed as a domestic help.
The chief minister, after visiting the house of the victim and in view of apparent lapses, had directed that the case be transferred to CID, Assam for a thorough probe.
The CID took over the case on August 12, 2022, and adequate evidence was brought on record during the probe to prove the offences of molestation, murder, destruction of evidence, attempt to rape under IPC and sexual assault on a minor under POCSO Act.
During investigation, the CID exhumed the victim’s body to conduct a second post mortem. A panel of forensic medical experts was consulted and DNA profiling of the main accused conducted, which matched with the fluids on the clothes of the victim.
Accordingly, the detailed chargesheet was filed on September 25, 2022 against the main accused, who is presently in judicial custody.
Further investigation into the bribery charges and role of government officials revealed that commissions and omissions (to screen the accused) were committed by the doctors who conducted the (first) post-mortem and they were arrested on November 7, 2022, interrogated in police custody and remanded to judicial custody.
The chief minister, while referring to the case, said that “through this CID probe and subsequent action (against all involved in the case) a strong message has been sent to the police, magistrate and doctors to do their duties diligently.
“Issues similar to the case were deliberated at length during the SP’s conference and sometimes, post mortem and inquest reports do not help police… rather they help the accused,” Sarma said, adding that in the past, the authorities have tried to take such cases to their logical conclusion.
“In this case, which is a rare one, as evidence was sabotaged, the matter had to be taken to a different level,” he said.
It may be mentioned that the additional DGP, CID Assam on Friday shared details regarding the conduct of the investigation.
