Guwahati, August 1: In a significant development, a key accused in the suicide case of animal rights activist Vineet Bagaria, surrendered before a court in Upper Assam on Monday.
Absconding for over three weeks, Sanjay Sharma, one of the main accused involved in the case, surrendered before the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Dibrugarh.
Sharma was subsequently sent to judicial custody by the chief judicial magistrate.
Two other accused, Baidullah Khan and Nishant Sharma, have been arrested by police from Lumding, a day after Bagaria was found dead.
Bagaria (32), the co-founder of Animal Welfare People (AWP), a Dibrugarh-based NGO which takes care of stray dogs, hanged himself at his Dibrugarh residence on July 7.
Before hanging himself, he had recorded a video of his, where he accused Baidullah Khan, Sanjay Sharma and Nishant Sharma of physically and mentally torturing him and his family over a rental property, eventually compelling him to take the drastic step.
Later, on the basis of an FIR filed by his father Kailash Bagaria, police arrested Baidullah and Nishant from Lumding in Hojai district on July 8, while they were trying to flee the state.
The Bagaria family later alleged that the Dibrugarh police did not take any step against the accused and even refused to file an FIR when they approached them for help.
Amid outrage across the state, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the residence of the deceased animal rights activist where he even apologised for what he termed as the “failure” of the police to take timely action against the accused.
Subsequently, the officer-in-charge of Dibrugarh police station was transferred.
The Dibrugarh district administration also demolished the residence of Baidullah Khan, at Ghoramara locality of the Upper Assam town four days after issuance of an eviction notice to Baidullah on the ground that his two-storey building was illegally constructed, vulnerable and hence “unsafe” for the occupants and people nearby.
