THE HORRIFIC STORY OF

ASSAM’S DARKEST PERIOD

Secret Killings
of
ASSAM

NANDA TALUKDAR FOUNDATION

HUMAN RIGHTS LAW NETWORK
Secret Killings of Assam

First Edition, 2009

c NTF & HRLN*

Published by:
Nanda Talukdar Foundation
Pub Sarania, Guwahati 781003
&
Human Rights Law Network
576, Masjid Road, Jangpura, New Delhi-110014

ISBN No: 81-89479-51-2

Back cover photograph:

Anupam Nath

Design:
Pranab Kr. Bayan

Printer:
Print Graphics, New Delhi

Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this publication are
not necessarily views of the Nanda Talukdar Foundation &
HRLN. Every effort has been made to avoid errors, omis-
sions, and inaccuracies. However, for inadvertent errors or
discrepancies that may remain nonetheless, the NTF &
HRLN take the responsibility.

*Any section of this volume may be reproduced without

prior permission of the NTF & HRLN for public interest
purposes with appropriate acknowledgement.
 To
those
who have lost
everything in this
ongoing mindless
violence
mrinal talukdar
utpal borpujari
kaushik deka
 content

introduction 1

that photograph 17

ananta kalita 30

umakanta gogoi 49

jyotish sharma 59

dimba rajkonwar 69

dr. dharani dhar das 87

haren teron 103

rajesh mishra & rajib koch 115

sukuri bodo 127

dwijen haloi 133

dhaneswar & sushila rabha 141

deepak choudhury 149

other cases 157

epilogue 193
foreword
It all began on a windy February night at Café
Leopold, Colaba, Mumbai. Four of us, who once
worked together in Assam, conceived this idea of
coming out with a book on the secret killings of
Assam, based on the inquiry commission reports.
Although each of us, in our individual journalis-
tic pursuits, has written thousands of words on the
secret killings, the rest of India virtually has no clue
about the magnitude of this extraordinary series of
violence and how it changed the course of socio-
political life of Assam forever.
That realization gave birth to this book. As we
started working on the book, digging deep into the
inquiry commission reports, professional and per-
sonal engagements forced two of our friends to
leave the project while another joined.
We have deliberately kept it simple and straight
to enable the reader to have a bird’s eye view of the
phenomenon of secret killings, perhaps the first of
its kind in the country. Some complicated intricacies
and murky details, which may create confusion in
the minds of readers have been avoided.
The book is based entirely on the inquiry com-
mission reports tabled by Assam Government on
the floor of the Assam Assembly. We did approach
XII

the Assam Police to get their version of the story.

But a wall of silence greeted us.
We are grateful to Rajeev Bora and Shrabana
Lahiri for encouraging us to take up this challeng-
ing project. We are also equally grateful to Biman
Arandhara for doing the translation work for the
book.
Lastly, we would like to thank those people who
helped us during the writing of the book, but pre-
ferred to remain behind the screen.
Our basic idea remains that rest of India should
know that something of this scale had happened in
Assam.
We have taken care to see that facts are not
misplaced. We have relied completely on the com-
mission reports for the facts. We regret beforehand
for any possible factual mistakes which we might
have committed unknowingly.

mrinal talukdar
secretary
Nanda Talukdar Foundation
Guwahati
before you start reading…
ULFA: United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) was
formed on April 7, 1979 by Bhimakanta
Buragohain, Rajiv Rajkonwar alias Arabinda
Rajkhowa, Golap Baruah alias Anup Chetia,
Samiran Gogoi alias Pradip Gogoi, Bhadreshwar
Gohain and Paresh Barua at the Rang Ghar, a
royal pavilion constructed during the Ahom era in
Sibsagar, to establish a “sovereign socialist Assam”
through an armed struggle. Despite repeated sur-
renders by many of its cadre and thousands of
other cadres getting killed, rampant unemployment
in rural Assam has ensured that their cadre
strength remains around 1,500. Their top leaders,
most of them allegedly based in Bangladesh, are
suspected to be under the wing of Pakistan’s ISI.
The militant group is ready for discussion with the
Government of India, but only when sovereignty is
on the agenda. Expert hands in causing bomb
blasts and other subversive activities, ULFA is not
known for ambush and direct attack. Their influ-
ence is now limited to a few pockets of Upper
Assam.

SULFA: Since 1991, close to 6,000 ULFA cadres

have surrendered before authorities. Majority of
XVI

them have found a new life, while another section,

exploiting the patronization of past governments,
emerged as big businessmen in the state. Those,
who have survived the elimination process, are
today in big-league business, ranging from con-
struction to media. However, during 1998-2001,
exploiting their vulnerability, the security forces
used them as a major weapon against ULFA, and
sporadically continue to do so.

Unified Command: In Assam, counter insurgency

operations are carried out by joint mechanism of
Army, Police and Paramilitary forces, which is
called the Unified Command structure. At the high-
est level, Corps Commander of the 4 Corps of the
Indian Army and the Assam government get togeth-
er on a regular basis, setting out policy objectives,
and at lower levels the district administration and
local military and paramilitary officers coordinate
operational matters. Initially an ad hoc arrange-
ment, it was institutionalized in January 1997. The
Chief Secretary of Assam is the de-jure head while
the Corps Commander of the Army is the actual
operational head.

AGP: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is the main

Opposition party of Assam. After storming to power
after the Assam Accord in 1985 following the six-
year-long students’ agitation demanding detection
and deportation of illegal immigrants from
Bangladesh, it lost to the Congress in 1991 when
the ULFA was at its peak. In 1996, AGP returned to
power and unleashed SULFA against ULFA trigger-
 XVII

ing a blood bath. The people of Assam, disgusted

with such a fratricidal policy, showed the party the
door in the next election in 2001 and since then
AGP is trying to return to the centre stage.
introduction
secret killings…
There is nothing unusual about these two
words. They are just two words in the English lan-
guage. And of course, most killings are secret.
But for the people of Assam, they are not mere-
ly two words. These two words symbolize the dark-
est period of its political history, a period people
would not like to dawn upon the state again.
These two words terrorized and tormented the
people of Assam for four years between 1998 and
2001. Every evening, during those four years,
these two words brought in shock and horror to
innumerable unfortunate souls in every corner of
Assam. The nights seemed long and endless and
for many there was no sunrise again in their life.
Even today, the mere mention of these two
words send shivers down the spines of many, who
were witness to many kidnappings and killings.
Women became widows, parents lost their sons,
sons their fathers and many sisters and brothers
could never see their siblings again.
Some are still waiting for the return of their
beloved ones. Everyday, they make one meal extra
- what if the lost one turns up hungry. There are
many who make regular rounds to all nearby hos-
4 secret killings of assam

pitals whenever some unidentified bodies are

found. A sense of anxiety and nervousness
envelopes their face when they remove the corner
of the white bed sheet covering the face of the body
in the morgue. Relieved that it’s not their beloved,
they wait for the next news to come.
Police cases were registered. Inquiry commis-
sions were set up. There were endless hearings.
But except some general statements and observa-
tions, nothing extraordinary came out of it. That was
obvious as it was part of a much bigger conspiracy
hatched – allegedly - by the state machinery.
And when this conspiracy was exposed, the
newspapers of Assam coined this term “Secret
Killings” to describe the state-sponsored extra-judi-
cial killings during the period. In fact, the inquiry
commission report says “secret killings” mean the
extra-judicial killings conducted by the state gov-
ernment using SULFA members and the security
forces in the name of counter-insurgency opera-
tions. The victims of these killings were relatives,
friends and colleagues of ULFA militants. The most
apparent justification for the whole exercise was
that it was a tit-for-tat response to the ULFA-spon-
sored terrorism, specially the killings of their old
comrades—the SULFAs.
For nearly a decade, since 1998, these two
words have guided the politics of Assam. Those
who preached “Secret Killing” are today in political
wilderness and those who actually practiced it were
either eliminated by ULFA or have taken refuge in
the comfort of distant land, opening up new busi-
nesses.
introduction 5

Riding on the popular sentiment against secret

killings, the Congress came to power not once, but
twice. They made sure that “Secret Killing” did not
fade away from public memory and put it on the
backburner only to use it whenever they wanted to
keep the Opposition at bay.
Of course, political parties and interest groups
gained and lost from secret killings depending on
which side they were in. But for the families of the
victims it was a loss which could never be com-
pensated. Hundreds went missing. If some were
kidnapped, others simply vanished without any
trace. Severed bodies of the victims were found
hanging from light posts, from the trees, near vil-
lage ponds, in swamps or on the bank of rivers.
Bodies were recovered without head, without
limbs. And in some cases only the head was recov-
ered. The bodies recovered were mostly in a
decomposed state and beyond recognition.
During those dark years, there was hardly a day
when newspapers did not flash reports of kidnap-
pings or recoveries of bodies. In the long che-
quered political history of Assam, those four years
stood out as the darkest. On one side, there was
the terror and meaningless violence by ULFA and
on the other was the state-sponsored gruesome
pogrom by SULFA against the relatives of ULFA.
Both sides were virtually playing ‘holi’ with
blood. Sandwiched between them were two crore
people of Assam, watching helplessly this madden-
ing saga of revenge. There was no accountability,
some ordinary police cases and no investigation.
What was shocking was that these killings soon
6 secret killings of assam

became just some case numbers for the govern-

ment. Those who dared to question simply van-
ished into the thin air. Gradually, the people of
Assam started accepting it and got used to the
blood bath.

how it all began?

It’s difficult to pinpoint as to exactly when these

series of killings started. However, the phenome-
non came to light with a news report that appeared
in the newspapers on June 23, 1999. Our friend
Rajib Bora, now the resident editor of The Times of
India in Goa, was then working at the Guwahati
desk of The Telegraph. He got a tip-off from a friend
of his that some mysterious killings were taking
place on an embankment situated at Hudumpara
near Palasbari on the outskirts of Guwahati city.
Although the tip-off did not hint at state-sponsored
killings, Rajiv smelt a rat. However, some other
responsibilities forced Rajib to stay put in the office
and he sent photo journalist Anupam Nath with
another correspondent Sankhadeep Choudhury to
Hudumpara to follow up the case. In a chance dis-
covery, they found a severed leg near the embank-
ment and Anupam took that famous photograph
(see back cover) which not only exposed the gory
saga of Secret Killings but documented the whole
episode for the first time. The rest was history. The
details of how the severed leg was discovered are
in the next chapter.
Soon, many more severed legs and heads were
found in various parts of the state, especially, in the
introduction 7

Brahmaputra valley. Every killing and subsequent

recovery of bodies led to hundreds of people taking
to streets. The more prominent killings of Jiten
Sharma, Dwijen Haloi, Dr Dharanidhar Das and
Dimba Rajkonwar shook the entire state and
almost everybody by then had lost faith in the state
as well as police forces. It was widely suspected
and believed that the then Chief Minister of Assam
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and Inspector General of
Police (Operation) of Assam Police G M
Srivastava’s tough stance against ULFA and tacit
support to SULFA had led to these series of secret
killings. Their role and involvement have been
acknowledged in the Justice Khagendra Nath
Saikia Inquiry Commission report and indirectly
held them responsible for this act of terror.
The then state government could easily have
stopped these killings if they wanted. But they
chose not to. They allowed them to go on.

what was the justification?

The main justification behind these killings was that

it would be the best method to teach ULFA a les-
son. Since ULFA was killing innocent people,
SULFA members and party workers of AGP who
was in the power then, the ULFA leader’s families
should be targeted to hit the militants where it hurts
most. It did pay off to a great extent.
Although most of the victims of the secret
killings were relatives of some of the top ULFA
leaders, there were some incidental victims who
8 secret killings of assam

were killed just because they happened to be the

wrong man at a wrong spot and at a wrong time.
Almost all the killings followed the same pattern.
In the name of search operation, SULFA members,
aided by security forces, would enter the house of
the victim at midnight, pick up their target and then
the bodies would be found the next morning. In
some cases, they would forcibly enter and gun
down everyone who came on the firing line. Some
were taken to the police stations, never to return
back.
As the public pressure mounted following unre-
lenting attack by newspapers, the then Chief
Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta ordered an
inquiry. But the Justice Safiqul Haque Commission
of Inquiry could not progress much as there was
hardly any cooperation from the same authorities
which had instituted the commission.
In 2001, thanks to ‘Secret Killings’, an anti-AGP
sentiment swept across the state. As expected, the
party was booted out of power paving way for the
Congress to come to power with the promise that a
proper inquiry would be conducted on the secret
killings. They did not wait long to set up Justice
Meera Sarma Inquiry Commission.
But the hopes of people of Assam got dashed
when Justice Sarma resigned from the commission
alleging non-cooperation by the state police. Then
came Justice J. N. Sharma to the commission. On
November 4, 2003, the Sharma commission start-
ed its work. His responsibility was to examine 11
main cases.
After two years, on August 1, 2005, the Sharma
introduction 9

commission submitted its report. But the report

could not fix responsibility on anyone, once again
because of lack of cooperation from the police as
well as the SULFA cadre. It demoralized victims
and the ordinary people. The then Chief Minister
Tarun Gogoi (currently serving his second consec-
utive term in office) and his government rejected
the findings of the Sharma Commission and the
hunt for a tougher and more pro-active retired
judge to head another commission of inquiry—the
fourth one on Secret Killings—began.
It ended at the gate of retired justice Khagendra
Nath Saikia. The septuagenarian was living a near-
retired life when he received a phone call from
Gogoi’s office, urging him to take the responsibility.
He initially tried to avoid it pointing towards his
advancing age. But the Chief Minister was persist-
ent. A reluctant Saikia finally took up the challenge
to find out the truth behind the darkest chapter of
Assam’s political history.
Justice Saikia was a politician-lawyer in his
early years, and as a member of the Uzani Assam
Parishad (Upper Assam Council) he always fought
against the Congress till he was made a judge of
the Guwahati High Court during the Janata Regime
in 1977. Since then, he never looked back and
retired as a judge of the Supreme Court of India.
The Saikia Commission was notified on August
2005. His brief was to go deep into the main cases
and find out the truth. He did go deep into the issue,
summoned hundreds of police officers, victims,
SULFA leaders and journalists over the course of
the two-year-long trial of the most complex and
10 secret killings of assam

inter-linked criminal case of the region.

The thin line between the call of duty for the
state and extra-judicial killings in the name of
revenge got thinner and thinner as the trial pro-
gressed, making it a Herculean task for the
Commission to distinguish between the two as the
suspected perpetrators sought to take refuge in the
former. There were even more problems as most of
the suspected executioners of secret killings were
either eliminated by ULFA or had vanished by then.
Yet, the inquiry commission report changed the
course of politics in Assam forever.
It also changed the face of Assam Police and
SULFA and the faith of the law abiding citizens of
Assam in the law and order machinery.

why secret killings?

What actually prompted these killings? Why did the

state machinery resort to such extra-judicial killings
which almost destroyed the political career of
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and tarnished the image
of Assam Police?
There are three main reasons.
First, ULFA was specifically targeting SULFA
members, who had surrendered and tried to settle
down to new and peaceful lives. But the state
never allowed them to have an easy way. They
rather used them against ULFA, making them easy
targets.
The SULFA members were desperate to hit
back as they had both the information about ULFA
introduction 11

movements and, more importantly, illegal arms

which they never gave up. The state government
exploited the situation and unleashed them creat-
ing a Frankenstein which only returned to haunt the
state.
Secondly, ULFA was also targeting the grass-
roots leaders of AGP. There was no provocation
and many of them were killed just because they
were AGP members. This had angered AGP lead-
ership and they were waiting for an opportunity to
hit back.
Thirdly, there was the pressure from the Union
Government as well as the Unified Command
structure to act decisively. All this led to a series of
serial killings under the direct patronage of the then
state government of Assam.
The Justice K N Saikia Inquiry Commission
report held the state police responsible for its sup-
porting role in the killings. It also pointed finger
towards the then Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar
Mahanta, who also held the Home portfolio, for his
direct and indirect patronage.
Interestingly, the family members of ULFA lead-
ers were killed only after they failed to persuade the
militant leaders to surrender. Initially, the family
members were threatened by the police and army
to bring back their wards to the mainstream. When
these threats did not bear fruits, the family mem-
bers were systematically eliminated by SULFAs.
However, the Inquiry Commission report leaves
no doubt that the state machinery and the armed
forces were extending full support to the perpetra-
tors of such heinous crimes.
12 secret killings of assam

All the secret killings bear striking resemblance

to one another. Most of the victims were somehow
related to ULFA leaders. Most of the preliminary
investigations of the police fizzled out or police put
up very weak cases in the final reports.
Barring Dimba Rajkonwar’s murder which took
place in the evening, most of the victims were killed
at midnight and the assailants spoke fluent
Assamese which further point’s needle of suspicion
towards SULFAs. The killers were armed with
sophisticated firearms of prohibited bores—mostly
available with police and military forces—and
masked themselves with black wrappers or caps to
avoid being identified.
Most importantly, the regular police patrols in
the areas of crime were surprisingly taken off on
those days when the secret killings took place. The
Saikia Commission report found that there were
lurking evidences of a police-SULFA nexus behind
these killings. The SULFAs were empowered with
extra-constitutional authority and were used as
executioners.
“The modus operandi was to visit the family and
ask the members to persuade its ULFA members to
surrender. If they failed in doing so, a team was
sent to survey the location and structure of the
house. Then armed and masked men would visit
the house, knock at the door, wake up the family
members, drag them out and shoot the targets
dead. In some cases, they would take away the vic-
tim, secretly kill the person elsewhere and dump
his body in a secluded place,” said the Saikia
Commission report.
introduction 13

There was a SULFA angle in each of these

killings and most of them were retaliatory in nature.
But the Saikia Commission did not look much into
this angle. The Commission held the then Chief
Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta responsible for
not being able to restrain the forces under his com-
mand, but failed to take notice of the fact that a
large number of AGP members were also getting
killed during that period. The Commission never
found it important to find out the reason behind
such extreme provocation which eventually led to
secret killings.
The simple deduction that these secret killings
were basically a ploy to tame ULFA, did not hold
much water. To fight the militant group the
Government had the army at its disposal, better
equipped than SULFAs. That clearly suggests that
the use of SULFAs was not only to counter their for-
mer colleagues.
If one goes deep into these cases, there are still
some mysterious leads lying unresolved. Take the
murder of Dimba Rajkonwar, who was the elder
brother of ULFA Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa. The
victim’s family, public and the initial police records
named three SULFA leaders—Nayan Das, Raju
Phukan and Krishna Hazarika—as the culprits.
Even before the start of the inquiry, Nayan Das
was killed under mysterious circumstances. Raju
Phukan was also shot dead by the army a few days
later. The last accused Krishna Hazarika was also
mysteriously killed.
Again, for the killings of ULFA leader Mithinga
Daimary’s family, SULFA leader Abinash Bardoloi
14 secret killings of assam

was questioned by police. He too was killed by

unidentified gunmen later. Similarly, another
SULFA leader Rinku Choudhury, who was involved
in several killings in Goalpara district, was also
killed under mysterious circumstances.
These SULFA leaders, killed under mysterious
circumstance, could have been used by the state
police to carry out the Secret Killings.

then who killed them?

There are no direct answers in the Inquiry

Commission report. There are reasons to suspect
that fearing uncomfortable disclosure before the
commission, they were eliminated one by one by
the same machinery which had earlier used them
against ULFAs.
To substantiate this speculation, SULFA leader
J. K. Mahanta, during his submission before
Commission, expressed suspicion that that ULFA
might not be involved in the murder of SULFA
leader Tapan Dutta.
This led to more questions. Why did most of the
accused in the secret killings get killed under mys-
terious circumstances? Who killed them? A proper
inquiry to these killings may raise more questions.
Why did the Inquiry Commission not bother to look
at these leads? It can safely be said that a major
chapter of the whole episode was left out deliber-
ately or not touched because the state government
did not ask the Inquiry Commission to look into that
aspect.
introduction 15

However, what was most heartening was that

the people of Assam acted responsibly and with
courage. Not only did they take to the streets
protesting the killings but also pointed towards the
killers and named them also. That was proved in
the Inquiry Commission report.
The idea behind this book is not to tell who the
real culprits were and who got away with it. Our
idea is to tell the world that such a horrific crime
took pace in Assam between 1998 and 2001. Every
single piece of information used in the book is
sourced from the Inquiry Commission report, which
was made public.
the photo that blew the lid off the secret killing
that photograph
 It was a white ambassador.
Hired from the nearby Nak-kaata pukhuri taxi
stand of Guwahati, it was an old, sturdy but reliable
car for Indian roads. Going by its reputation of
decades, Anupam did not think twice before asking
the driver of the ambassador to take him to
Palasbari.
Anupam means Anupam Nath, a news photog-
rapher now working for Associated Press. He was
then working for The Telegraph. With him was
Sankhadeep Choudhury in that all-important mis-
sion. Their destination was an embankment at
Hudumpara near Palasbari on the bank of the
Brahmaputra.
Their brief was simple - verify if any mysterious
killings were taking place on the embankment adja-
cent to Dakhola Hudumpur near Palasbari, a small
town some 30-odd kilometres south of Guwahati.
Palasbari is a dying town. Once, a thriving busi-
ness town full of sawmills, half of the town was
eroded by the mighty Brahmaputra in the 1970s. As
most of the business moved to nearby Mirza town,
the old and dying sawmills now stand as testimony
to that legacy.
The ambassador by then had already crossed
20 secret killings of assam

Maligaon. The assignment puzzled both Anupam

and Sankhadeep. How far the tip-off can be relied?
If at all there were some killings, who could be
the killers? What was their motive? Could it be a
serial killing? Could it be a racket of organ trans-
plantation? Or could it be some ancient ritual?
Anupam had no answer, neither did
Sankhadeep.
Their senior colleague Rajib Bora had got the
first tip off. He was also confused. A friend, who had
been tipped off by an office colleague residing in
Hudumpara village, had informed Rajib about
these mysterious “happenings”. The initial informa-
tion was that there were some unusual movements
those days on the embankment around midnight.
Sometimes there used to be cry of people followed
by deathly silence. Sometimes there were move-
ment of vehicles and sometimes severed body
parts were found. The primary suspicion was that
someone was practicing an ancient ritual of human
sacrifice. But there was no proof.
Rajib was confident that something really big
was cooking and it was too important a lead to be
ignored. It could not be just human sacrifice. He
knew that this would surely lead to something else.
His sixth sense could anticipate something serious.
The pressure of work tied him to the office for
the next four days. But when the same friend called
him again to narrate the gory details of an incident
that had happened just the previous night, he final-
ly decided to visit the ill-fated village next day.
But that was not to be. Some unexpected and
sudden pressing office engagement forced him to
that photograph 21

stay put at office. So he asked photojournalist

Anupam and reporter Sankhadeep to go to
Hudumpara and investigate the lead.
And there were Anupam and Sankhadeep, on
their way to Hudumpara.
It was a hot noon of June 22, 1999 to be pre-
cise. Soon they crossed Gauhati University. As
they left the Guwahati city behind, they were hop-
ing that the countryside would bring some relief
from the heat. But there was no respite. In fact, to
add to their misery, the road was getting worse. But
neither the driver nor the passengers were com-
plaining. Only Anupam was holding his trusted
Nikon 90X closer to his chest.
He knew that if the story was worth following,
then his camera would play a vital role. Whatever
be the final report, a solid photograph must back it.
On his left, Sankhadeep was on his own world,
enjoying the rural landscape.
Rajib was also told by the source that several
villagers had, in fact, seen those people but they
were masked. They used to hear gunshots followed
by a long cry and then deathly silence. Out of fear,
nobody dared to venture out and check the origin of
the cry. There was no police case, no police inves-
tigation. But the incidents were rising, so was the
recovery of severed body parts in that area. But the
villagers dared not to inform the police.
Outside Hudumpara, throughout Assam, there
was an atmosphere of tension, suspicion and mis-
trust with reports flying thick and fast that SULFAs
were targeting the friends and relatives of ULFA
leaders.
22 secret killings of assam

However, there was no proof, no recovery of

body. Could these incidents be linked with that
rumour?
More he thought of the case, Anupam was get-
ting more confused. Was he taking too much of risk
without knowing the full magnitude of the incident?
But that was a challenge every journalist worth his
name would like to take up again and again.
Anupam did not want to think much and tried to
take a nap as the Ambassador was moving slowly
on the bumpy road. He knew he had a very long
day ahead.
However, not in his wildest dream he ever
thought that this assignment would change the
course of his life forever.
Back in Guwahati, except Rajib, nobody knew
about their journey and the purpose. There were no
hurdles on their way till they reached Dakhola
Hudumpur. There was no police checking, no
unwarranted questions.
Like most villages of Assam, there is nothing
significant about Hudumpur. It is a quite large vil-
lage with several rows of thatched house and a few
tin-roofed houses. At first glance it could safely be
said that poverty had not touched Hudumpur.
Neither did the luxuries of material world.
But how to begin the probe? Where to start from?
The arrival of an Ambassador in the village had
already alerted the villagers and the fact that one of
the occupant’s of the car was carrying a camera
immediately raised an alarm.
Both Sankhadeep and Anupam realized that it
would be too tough to get anything from the vil-
that photograph 23

lagers. The initial moments were extremely

depressing with no help forthcoming. Rather, the
duo became object of unsolicited attention. The
timing was also far from perfect. By the time they
reached the village, it was mid-afternoon and most
of the men folk were not at home. The sky was also
overcast and looked it was going to rain soon.
Both pressed on. They only had one lead, the
killings were taking place on an embankment. They
did not have much problem in reaching the long
embankment. By the time they were on the
embankment and started walking towards
Palasbari with the mighty Brahmaputra on their left,
a sudden gush of cold wind from the river left them
a little nervous.
Sankhadeep looked up to Anupam, with his eye
clearly urging not to push further. Still they carried
on till it started raining forcing them to take shelter
in the nearest house.
Before they could find themselves under the
cowshed of the thatched house, they were already
drenched. There were only a woman and a little girl
in that house. There was no male member present
at that time. The woman was not very keen to let
them in. She pointed towards a small corner
between the cowshed and an open fireplace. That
was enough for them.
Although they were trying to strike a conversa-
tion with the woman but the lady was clearly
uncomfortable having two unwelcome visitors in
their house. But she could not ask them to leave as
the rain was showing no sign of stopping. It was
raining for more than an hour.
24 secret killings of assam

The lady, despite initial reluctance, showed

remarkable strength and hospitality as she offered
them tea. Both Sankhadeep and Anupam were
waiting for this small opportunity. The tea really
helped in turning the environment friendly. Slowly
the woman opened up.
Soon, the discussion veered around the myste-
rious killings and the lady gradually revealed her
daily experiences. It turned out that she herself had
heard all those cries and saw movements of people
and vehicle right next to their house on the
embankment. The unsuspecting woman, in fact,
told them that there were some killings on the
embankments in the past few days but she and her
husband were too scared to tell anything to any-
one.
That was also the first sign of hope for both
Anupam and Sankhadeep. With only an hour to go
before sunset, their mission, till then, was a com-
plete failure. Let alone any photographs of severed
parts of bodies, they could not get anyone, on the
record, to say that some killings took place in the
vicinity. The lady was in fact the first one to
acknowledge such killings. Sankhadeep pressed
on and she went on giving graphic details about the
movement of vehicles, firing and then recovery of
various parts of bodies.
She said often, in the previous few weeks, at
the dead of the night, some vehicles would to come
to the embankment, drag a person out and then
shoot him dead. Shock and horror could be seen in
her eyes and she later confessed that she had sus-
pected both Anupam and Sankhadeep to be part of
that photograph 25

the killer gang. The woman and her husband were

so scarred they stopped going near the embank-
ments even during the day. As Sankhadeep
pestered for more, she pleaded not to tell to any-
one about the incident. Sufficiently assured and
convinced that her identity would be protected, she
revealed that the last incident took place barely a
few days before. The terrified family was spending
sleepless nights fearing recurrence of similar inci-
dents.
By then the rain had stopped and the sun was
back in business. Emboldened by this sudden
change of nature and unexpected help from the
lady, Anupam and Sankhadeep came out of the
house and started walking on the embankment
once again looking for some clinching evidence.
Anupam was constantly looking at the water and
hyacinth expecting something interesting for his
lenses. They needed a photograph, which could
substantiate what the lady had told them.
After walking for a while, they found a small
thatched tent on the embankment and saw three
persons discussing something seriously. All the
three were shocked to see Anupam and
Sankhadeep. They turned out to be employees of
the Flood Control Department of the state govern-
ment and were attendants of the embankment. On
being probed about the mysterious killings, they
turned silent with one of them even denying the
occurrence of any such incident. Their shaky
replies, misleading eyes and body language, how-
ever, were telling another story. Without wasting
much time with them, Anupam moved forward
26 secret killings of assam

while Sankhadeep pestered with them unsuccess-

fully for some more time.
Anupam’s sixth sense was telling him that the
killings took place on that very spot and they would
surely get some evidence. Anupam went searching
for any clues as a man possessed.
He was looking for bloodstains or even some
body parts and was walking up and down the
stream. But there was nothing. Shankhadeep, tired
and skeptical, was observing Anupam with amuse-
ment. The Brahmaputra was quite broad at that
point, perhaps more than a kilometre. On the other
side of the river is Sualkuchi. The current of the
river on the southern bank near Hudumpur caused
severe erosion during the monsoon. The embank-
ment was basically to protect the Palasbari and the
surrounding places.
Meanwhile, Anupam reached a dead stream.
There was small bamboo-pole bridge over the
stream. The steam had a thick cover of water
hyacinth on it. He went near and found something
in pale white. It was the only unusual thing he could
see amidst blue waters and green hyacinth. As he
craned his neck, looked at it closely, he could not
believe his ‘luck’. It was a severed leg of a human
being.
With over six feet between him and the object,
he was almost certain that it was a leg. Still he
wanted to confirm. He was excited, nervous and
profusely sweating. He was possessed man by
then. He kept aside his camera on the bank,
removed his shoes and rolled up his pants and
walked into the river to go closer to the leg.
that photograph 27

Sankhadeep was aghast. He warned Anupam

not to move further. But his words did not reach
Anupam who got very close to the object. A cold
shrill went down his spine when he realized that he
was looking at a white severed soft leg of an adult
human, floating just a few feet away from him. For
a fraction of a second, he was hesitant. Then he
tried to pull the leg out of water with the help of a
bamboo stick. But the leg was too heavy. He looked
around hoping to get something that could be use-
ful to pull out the leg from water. But there was
none. Sankhadeep was too far away for any real
help. Anupam went one step closer and after a
deep breath, hold the leg with both of his hands
and dragged it to the shore.
Sankhadeep, watching from distance, was liter-
ally in tears. By that time a villager, returning home
with his cows, reached the spot. He demanded to
know Anupam’s motive. Anupam told him the truth
and the man readily came forward for help. And
then he took that famous photograph which
changed the course of Assam’s political history for-
ever.
The villager was unusually frank and he went
on to tell that such recovery of decomposed body
parts were a regular feature in that area. According
to him, some masked people would come in Maruti
Gypsy cars, drag the victim out of the vehicle and
shoot him dead from close range. Then the body
would be chopped into smaller pieces and thrown
in to the river. He himself had seen several such
pieces, which he said had been swept away by the
Brahmaputra.
28 secret killings of assam

Anupam and Sankhadeep were dumbfounded.

Sankhadeep had the story and Anupam had the
photograph. It was time to return. Both had realized
the importance of what was achieved.
That was the first time a piece of evidence was
found to establish that some mysterious killings
were going on all over Assam. Shocked and shak-
en, they were not talking to each other and returned
to the car as quickly as possible, leaving the sev-
ered leg on the embankment. Both were in a des-
perate hurry to leave the place, as they feared the
secret killers could be watching or following them.
They had realised that they had hit something
big, but none of the two could sense that they had
just unearthed one of the most significant chapters
of Assam’s political history. As responsible citizens,
they went to the Palasbari police station and
informed the officer-in-charge about the recovery of
the severed leg.
When that photograph was splashed on the
front page of The Telegraph the next day, all hell
broke loose and reporters from every newspaper
rushed to the site only to find more body parts.
That was the beginning. On June 24, 1999,
newspapers of Assam for the first time used the two
words “Secret Killings”, as they were unable to
solve the mystery. Two days later, a severed head,
which was later identified of an ULFA sympathizer
of Sualkuchi-Hajo area, was found.
Some SULFA men, with the help of the police,
had kidnapped him. It did not take long for the com-
mon people to understand who were killing whom.
It was long suspected that the state had colluded
that photograph 29

with SULFAs to carry out extra-judicial killings.

These discoveries of severed parts of the body only
confirmed the apprehensions.
And the rest was history.
The lone survivor of secret killing
episode- Ananta Kalita
ananta kalita
Unquestionably, this was the most infamous and
hair-raising incident of the entire series of cases
that were investigated as a part of the Secret Killing
inquiry.
This was not a case of killing. This was actually
a case of miraculous escape, of someone literally
coming out from the jaws of death. In fact, Ananta
Kalita was the one and only survivor of the whole
secret killing episode.
He was shot from point blank range. The bullet
did not miss him. In fact, it went through his skull,
but yet, he survived miraculously to tell the horrific
story of the secret killing and blew the lid off the
whole episode.
His kidnapping, dramatic escape from death
and subsequent reports rocked the entire state as
for the first time somebody had come back alive to
describe the horror behind secret killing. It was
from him that the local media and people of Assam
came to know about the exact modus operandi of
the secret killers and the nexus.
Much before the Justice KN Saikia Commission
tabled its report, the people of Assam clearly knew
who were behind the whole episode, which could
only be compared with the Gestapo forces of the
34 secret killings of assam

Nazi Germany. But they had no proof.

This particular incident would put to shade
many Hollywood thrillers. Ananta Kalita’s whole
ordeal was akin to nothing but a crime thriller and it
is still beyond anyone’s comprehension how he
could actually survive despite being shot from point
blank range.
Kalita hails from Hajo, a small town, about 40
odd kilometres from Guwahati. He was an active
member of the Assam Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra
Parishad (AJYCP), a radical youth organization
which is ideologically closer to ULFA than the All
Assam Students’ Union (AASU), the other promi-
nent and influential students’ body of the state.
He was the only one who was witness to the
entire process of abduction and killing by the secret
killers. He was the only man, who talked with the
secret killers and spent two days of his life in their
custody, in the camps of the secret killers.
It all started on the night of September 16,
1998. By then, the whole of Assam had been shak-
en by the terror of secret killings. Already, kidnap-
pings and killings were going on all over the state.
Almost every morning newspapers were carrying
news of unidentified bodies being discovered. Most
of them were of either ULFA supporters or link men
or close relatives of ULFA leaders.
Assam was going through an endless tunnel of
darkness. Everybody realized that the State had
some role to play in all this. They also realized that
the killers had become unstoppable. Everyone
realized that law and order had become hostage to
a few individuals. Assam was waiting to burst.
ananta kalita 35

In one of such deadly nights, unknown

assailants knocked at the door of Kalita. They came
in two vehicles. Covering their face with black
hoods, the assailants, numbering more than 10,
dragged Kalita out of the bed and drove away.
Some of the kidnappers had small weapons but
they were not brandishing that. The incident took
place on the intervening night of September 16-17.
Early in the morning of September 17, 1998,
Ananta’s brother Mantu Kalita filed an FIR at the
Hajo police station informing about the abduction.
Two days after the kidnapping, in the morning of
September 19, Ananta Kalita arrived at the
Maligaon branch of the AJYCP office in an auto-
rickshaw. He was profusely bleeding. His head was
covered with a cloth. It appeared that a bullet had
hit his skull, gone through it and come out
just below the left eye. He was not able to speak
properly.

who kidnapped him?

That was the most incredible survival story. Despite

being injured, he somehow managed to tell the
AJYCP office bearers that he was kidnapped and
shot by unknown persons atop a hill. He regained
consciousness in the morning and somehow man-
aged to reach the road and on a truck he came to
Beltola from where he took an auto-rickshaw to
come to Maligaon.
The AJYCP officials rushed him to the Guwahati
Medical College (GMC) and then he was shifted to
36 secret killings of assam

the Guwahati Neurological Research Centre

(GNRC). He had to undergo a very long treatment
to recover fully and remained a thorn for the perpe-
trators of the whole series of secret killings, making
sure that the mystery was taken to its logical con-
clusion.
The Hajo police station, acting on the FIR, reg-
istered a case (155/99) and started the investiga-
tion also. Later, Ananta Kalita filed another FIR in
the Basistha police station in southern parts of
Guwahati. The Hajo police station later closed the
case but it was reopened after pressure from the
senior hierarchy of the Assam Police.
Both the cases are still going on. The police col-
lected medical reports of all the hospitals where
Ananta Kalita was treated. The opinions of the bal-
listic experts were also taken. During his treatment,
a magistrate also recorded his statement.
The medical report said that a bullet had
pierced through his skull and come out just below
the left eye without damaging the nerves. Even a
fraction of millimeter would have caused fatal
injuries to Ananta Kalita.
But he survived.

version of ananta kalita

On the fateful night of September 16, Ananta Kalita

was sleeping with his parents and two brothers.
Around 2 a.m., he got up hearing some commotion
in front of his door. He heard that some people
were looking for him and was having a heated
ananta kalita 37

altercation with his elder brother. He could clearly

hear that his brother was being beaten up by the
group.*1
Unable to handle the situation, his elder brother
and some unknown voices called for him asking to
open the door of his room. As he opened the door,
three persons entered the room immediately. One
flashed a torch light on his face while the other
slapped him hard. The third ordered him to put on
his clothes. In the meantime, one of the three
picked up a suitcase and demanded the keys.
When Ananta gave him the keys, they opened the
bag and took out the educational certificates from
the bag.
By then Ananta had put on clothes. He was then
dragged out of home. He tried to grab hold of a post
on the verandah but the assailants overpowered
him He was severely beaten up in front of the
whole family, kicked and then dragged out to the
road.
On the road, he saw two vehicles. One was a
white Maruti Gypsy and the other one was a black
Tata Sumo. When he pleaded to know the reason
behind his abduction, he was told coldly by one of
the occupants that he was being taken to identify a
house. By then a couple of neighbours had also
come out. He could see that one was carrying a
lamp. But the assailants shooed them off and then
Ananta was put on the Tata Sumo.
After driving some distance, Ananta was asked
to remove his shirt. When he removed it, his eyes
were tied with the same shirt and, with a small
scurf, his hands were also tied from behind.
38 secret killings of assam

He could realize that the vehicle was travelling

towards Ramdiya. He could sense the gravel road.
He also could sense that the other vehicle was hav-
ing some trouble as it stopped after honking furi-
ously a few times.
Although Ananta was sitting in the middle of the
back row, he was forced to remain hunched out of
sight from outside for the whole journey. After some
time, the vehicle reached the Bathan police outpost
near Sualkuchi police station. He could sense that
almost all the occupants of the vehicle went down
and a new set of people came in.
The vehicle then took a sharp about turn and
drove off only to stop after some time. He guessed
that it was a CRPF camp or Assam Police battalion.
From another vehicle somebody yelled, “Murga mil
gaya ka?” One of the assailants of his vehicle
replied in affirmative.
After that, the vehicles drove at a higher speed.
The roads were familiar to him, so were the jerks
and turns. He could sense that the vehicle was
crossing the Saraighat bridge on the river
Brahmaputra. He knew that they were going
towards Guwahati.
When the driver asked for direction after cross-
ing the bridge, the answer came, “Chandmari.”
In between, the vehicle was stopped by a police
picket. The inmates of the car and those on the
road exchanged pleasantries. The journey contin-
ued and after some time the Chandmari fly-over
was crossed. Meanwhile, the other vehicle devel-
oped major problem. It was abandoned and all the
inmates of the Gypsy came to the Tata Sumo.
ananta kalita 39

The journey finally came to an end and Ananta

was dragged out of the Tata Sumo. They took him
to the top of a hill and then he was tied with the post
of a thatched house. He realized that there was
already one unfortunate like him inside the room.
Although blindfolded, he could clearly hear that
someone was questioning one Prabin Bodo. The
questions were mostly like how may police person-
nel he had killed and how much money he had
extorted and for whom he had been doing all this.
Prabin replied that he had never killed anyone,
nor had he collected money on behalf of anyone,
but that he had been working for the National
Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).
Ananta was kept tied throughout the whole
night. He could sense Bodo was also lying nearby.
Early in the morning, he could hear movements of
heavy vehicles and he could understand that they
were not far off from a major road.
In the morning, one of the captors came up to
him asking whether he would like to attend nature’s
call. When Ananta said yes, he was taken to the toi-
let. His hands were opened but kept blindfolded.
After that he was once again brought to the same
room and tied again. He could realize that a police-
man was speaking in Bodo language to Bodo.
Suddenly, two men entered the room. One
slapped Ananta hard, another pushed him.
However, the attack stopped when some one point-
ed out that Ananta was an important case and
should be handled with care. By afternoon, his
hands and eyes were opened and he was served
lunch. As he was cleaning his utensils, he could
40 secret killings of assam

see a long thatched house. It looked like a police

barrack with rows of police uniforms hanging
around. He was allowed to go to the toilet also.
Then, a heavily built man entered the room and
straightway attacked Ananta. He was drunk. He
was objecting to the fact that his personal room
was being used to keep the captives. He, in fact,
had an altercation with two men, one of whom was
repeatedly referred as “Major”.
The “Major”, however, turned a bit sympathetic
towards Ananta and said that security men were
always rough. In the evening, he was served early
dinner. After dinner, both he and the other captive
Bodo were once again tied and blindfolded.
Around midnight Bodo was taken out and
Ananta was asked to sleep on a bed. He was later
informed by the kitchen boy that Bodo was shot
dead and he would be the next victim. When
Ananta asked whether he would also be killed, an
inmate of the camp informed that he could be
released since there was no incriminating evidence
found against him. But it all depended on the com-
manding officer or “Major”.
Ananta spent the scariest night of his life with-
out a minute of sleep. Death was at the door. In the
morning, he was given bread and tea. The day was
a normal one with every new man at the camp ask-
ing him some questions. During the day, he was
asked to have bath and there, for the first time, he
saw a long hall with 30-40 beds in it. There were
four latrines outside.
After the bath, he was once again kept inside
the room. Someone came inside and asked
ananta kalita 41

whether he knew one Ataur Rahman. Another

asked why he wanted to die. In return, Ananta
asked where he was kept. He was informed that it
was the operation centre of No 10 and 13 battalion.
On September 18, around 8 p.m., a dark and
heavily-built young man entered the room. He iden-
tified himself as Fida Gogoi. He told Kalita that he
was the leader of the secret killers.
“I am the leader. I can kill or save your life.
There is no one above us to decide. We can
release you in one condition. You have to kill
Rupjyoti (an ULFA militant) in two days”. Ananta
told that he knew Rupjyoti, who was his neighbour,
but had not met or seen him for the past one-and-
a-half years. Another captor asked if he knew Hira
Sarania (a top ULFA leader). When Ananta replied
in the negative, he was told on his face that he
would be killed that night.*2
At night, the kitchen boy, who served him din-
ner, asked him to have some more saying that that
would be his last dinner. Ananta was terrified. He
could hear somebody was watching the TV serial
‘Jai Hanuman’ in the adjacent room.
After some time, a youth came in and tied him
up firmly with a rope. Then, three-four men entered
the room and blindfolded him. His last sight was
that one of the captors taking out a Naga dao (a
machete) from under the bed.
He was put inside a car and was asked to lie on
the floor behind the driver. Another vehicle followed
his car. One of the captors whispered to another,
“Sir is coming.” It was around 12 at midnight.
Ananta could guess that they were climbing a hill
42 secret killings of assam

and a stream was flowing nearby. One of the cap-

tors loudly said that they had reached Dwimukh of
Palasbari and from there the road to Chaygaon
would be good. But Ananta guessed that they were
not near Chaygaon or Palasbari, which were plain
areas, because the road was serpentine and was
going up.
Finally, the car came to a halt. After a truck
crossed the vehicle, Ananta was brought down
from the car and dragged along for another 30 feet
where his old rope was changed with new rope.
The piece of cloth over his eyes was also tight-
ened.
The captors then searched for any mark on his
body or any identification paper in his pockets.
When they found nothing, he was asked to stand
still on the slope of the hill.
There were no noise for a couple of seconds
and he could feel cold metal near his temple. He
immediately sensed it was the pistol and he plead-
ed for mercy.
All the captors shouted together, “AJYCP go to
hell.” And then there was sound of firing….
Ananta does not remember what exactly hap-
pened after that. He only remembers that he was
falling down the slope of a hill. After regaining con-
sciousness, he was feeling severe pain and was
very thirsty.
He pleaded and cried for water. But there was
no one to help. His hands were tied and eyes were
tightly shut. He cried for water for almost half an
hour but there was no help for him inside the
jungle.
ananta kalita 43

He could realize that a bullet had pierced

through his head and he was bleeding profusely.
But his hands and eyes were all tied up.
Showing unbelievable energy and mental
strength, he crawled back and found a stream
nearby. He drank plenty of water and regained
some strength. He then sat and rubbing his hand
against a sharp stone, managed to cut the rope.
Removing his eye lid, he covered his wound with
the same cloth and crawled up to the road which
was not far away.
But as soon as he reached the road, he col-
lapsed again. At that time a Maruti Van approached
the spot and Kalita managed to stop the vehicle
raising his legs as a signal to stop, so weak he was.
The occupants came down. There were two tribal
persons. One of them was middle-aged and the
other was much younger. Ananta told them that he
had been attacked by dacoits. The two men told
him that they going towards Shillong and so won’t
be able to take him to Guwahati, which was in the
opposite direction. But they were kind enough to
stop a truck and persuaded the driver to carry
injured Kalita to, at least Beltola down the hilly area
where he could expect some medical help.
The truck driver did bring him to Beltola, the
gateway of Guwahati, and, in fact, gave him Rs 10
and arranged for an auto-rickshaw. In a near-
unconscious state, the auto-rickshaw brought him
to the Maligaon office of the AJYCP from where he
was rushed to the Guwahati Medical College
Hospital.
44 secret killings of assam

the commission’s inquiry

This was the most important case of all the major

cases of secret killings because only in this case
the Commission had the added advantage of a wit-
ness. Except Kalita, there was no witness as in all
others incidents of secret killings there was no sur-
vivor.
Ananta Kalita did inform the Commission as
well as previous commissions and police that
Ramen Kalita alias Ramen Das, a SULFA leader of
Sualkuchi, was involved in his abduction and sub-
sequent attempt to murder. During the abduction,
Ramen and his accomplices were sitting inside the
vehicle and he could see them. Since then, Ramen
Kalita has been absconding and police have not
been able to find him out so far.*3
According to Kalita, another accused was Major
(actually Subedar Major) Gupteshwar Singh of the
Army. Sudebdar Major Gupteshwar Singh has
since then retired. He was summoned from New
Delhi by the Commission. He replied to his notice
but did not face the Inquiry Commission.
The Commission divided the accused into two
groups. The first group was of conspirators who
assisted in the abduction. The other group was of
the main accused who sought to kill Ananta.
Ananta, while giving his statement before the
magistrate, even as he was being treated at the
Down Town Hospital in Guwahati, said that a group
of AJYCP youth had opened the Singimari Multi
Purpose Agricultural Farm and it was strongly
opposed by both the Hajo and Sualkuchi police sta-
ananta kalita 45

tions. The police suspected that the youth had the

backing of ULFA. In fact, more than once, the
police came inside the farm, ransacked the whole
infrastructure but could not establish a direct link.
When a cow of the farm died unnaturally, the
Hajo Police station Officer-in-Charge B K Nath,
instead of finding out the culprit, put Ananta Kalita
inside the lock up on the charge of harassing other
citizens. Kalita also told the Commission that he
and his other colleagues of the farm were pressur-
ized to quit AJYCP and instead join Assam Yuva
Parishad (AYP), the youth wing of the Asom Gana
Parishad (AGP). According to Kalita, this was the
prime reason behind his abduction and attempt to
kill him in the Jorabat hills along the Assam-
Meghalaya border.
The commission did send notices to the then
Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, then minis-
ter Nurul Hussain, Director General of Police (DGP),
IGP (Operation) and other police officials. Mahanta,
in his affidavit, said that since there were 365 people
who were secretly killed between 1996-2001 and
since a petition seeking CBI trial for that period was
being heard by the Gauhati High Court, the Inquiry
Commission should suspend their inquiry into these
case till the matter was not disposed by the High
Court. Similarly, Hussain said that since the matter
was being investigated by Haq Commission and
nothing incriminatory had been found against him
and his involvement in the whole episode, the Saikia
commission had no jurisdiction over the matter to re-
investigate once again. However, the Saikia
Commission rejected both petitions.
46 secret killings of assam

Later, Ananta Kalita was taken to Jorabat in

presence of the magistrate to show the exact spot
from where he had made the miraculous escape
from the jaws of death. However, he could not spot
it despite trying hard for almost a whole day. He
also could not show the operation centre of the
10th and the 13th battalion. The 10th Assam Police
battalion is located in Kahilipara in southern parts of
Guwahati city while the 13th battalion is located at
Leelabari, several hundred kilometers away. There
was clearly a mix-up of facts.*4
The Commission took him to Kahilipara, where
along with the 10th Assam Police Battalion, the 4th
Assam Police battalion is also located. But Ananta
could not pinpoint the house were he had been
kept in confinement for two days. He also could not
locate the hill where he was shot. The Maruti van,
truck and the auto-rickshaw also could not be
found. Appearing before the Commission,
Mahanta’s counsel S C Khound questioned the
veracity of the whole story saying there had been a
lot of discrepancies between the shooting and
Kalita’s eventual journey—he crossed several
major hospitals on his way—to the Maligaon
AJYCP. Besides, after arriving in Maligaon, Ananta
did not narrate the incident to his colleagues.
However, the Commission observed that Ananta
could not be in a position to explain everything in
that condition.
On the last day of hearing of the Commission,
Nurul Hussian, former AGP minister, appeared
before the Commission. Through his counsel, he
informed that he was no way involved with the inci-
ananta kalita 47

dent and the allegation was purely political in

nature. According to him, the allegation of his
involvement in the whole incident was politically
motivated and opposing political forces were using
it to finish him politically.
The Commission in its report compared this
incident with the atrocities of S.S. Gestapo forces
of Hitler. The Commission is of the view that Ananta
Kalita was shot at somewhere between Byrnihat to
Jorabat. Meanwhile, the then DGP Harekrishna
Deka, retired DGP P V Sumanta and IGP
(Operation) G M Srivastava also filed affidavits.
None of the affidavits rejected the first and the last
part of the whole episode but rejected Ananta
Kalita’s version that he was kept in a barrack where
he could see clothes lines with police dresses
along with police barrack like situations.
However, the Commission found more weight in
Ananta Kalita’s version than the combined strength
of all other affidavits and counter-affidavits of the
AGP leaders and Assam Police officials.
The Commission said that it believed that this
abduction could be an attempt to weaken the
AJYCP and strengthen the AGP in the Hajo region.
The AJYCP has always been seen as a youth
organization with covert and overt sympathy for the
ideologies of ULFA. The Commission indicted
Nurul Hussain and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in its
report and asked the Assam Government to
release Rs 5 lakh as compensation to Ananta Kalita
for the ordeal he went through.
Angry protestors take out a procession with the
bodies of Dwizen Haloi and Pushpa Haloi
umakanta gogoi
The name of the village is No. 2 Borbil Gaon.
Situated in a area under the jurisdiction of
Kakotibari police station in Sibsagar district of
Upper Assam, it is village which could boast of all
the beautiful things that one usually associates with
a village in Assam. The simple village folk add to
the virgin charm of the place. As if the heart of this
village beats to the rhythm of the mantra of life.
Truly, an ideal village.
Umakanta Gogoi was a resident of this beauti-
ful village. By profession, he was a farmer. A mild-
mannered man. He would do the farming himself
and sell the part of his produce to run household
expenses. Living a simple life was his motto. With
his wife Bindra, four daughters—Moni, Mamoni,
Jitu and Matu—and son Dhiraj, he had a big family
to look after. His family was not that small, though.
Eldest daughter Moni had been already married off.
Life was going smooth for the Gogoi family.
Happy and content with the small little things of life.
But unknown to it, destiny had something cruel in
store for the family. The simple Umakanta Gogoi
had no inkling about it. Some invisible force had
already spread an inescapable net around them
and Gogoi’s family was simply inching towards it.
52 secret killings of assam

What sets this case apart and makes one of the

saddest in the series is the fact that Gogoi had not
clue at all about the approaching calamity. And then
there came a day when the entire family was wiped
out of the world.
The day was September 11, 1999. The nights
were getting colder and the people of No 2 Borbil
village those days had got used to going to the bed
early. Gogoi and his family members too had fallen
asleep. A little distance away, the families of his
brothers Jugal Gogoi and Nomal Gogoi had also
retired to bed. Suddenly, the sound of bullets fol-
lowed by the noise of a bomb blast broke the peace
and silence of the sleepy village. The entire village,
including Jugal and Nomal, woke up to these
sounds which were followed by shouts and
screams of some unfortunate souls. They were left
startled but no one had the courage to come out
and inquire. Everybody waited for the night to come
to an end.
Jugal and Nomal came out early in the morning
only to find that the firing and the blast had taken
place in Umakanta Gogoi’s house. There was
nobody alive in that house then. Everybody had
been reduced to smithereens in the blast and the
firing. There was nothing that could have been
identified as human bodies. Their body parts lay
scattered in various parts of their thatched-roof,
bamboo-made house. It was impossible to identify
the pieces of flesh. The whole house had burnt
down. Only the kitchen had somehow been left
intact. The worst view was that of some dismem-
bered hands and legs hanging from nearby tree
umakanta gogoi 53

branches. The devastating scene had left the

neighbours literally speechless. They never had
any inkling that the one of the families in the village
would meet such horrific end.
The whole area was shaken by the incident.
People found out that there was a three-feet deep
and 6-7 feet wide crater where Umakanta Gogoi’s
bed used to be. The bomb had exploded at that
spot. Three shells of a radio, three dirty pairs of
shoes, a small broken bulb, electricity cables,
pieces of clothes and blankets, two cartridges of 9
mm pistol and six pieces of splinter had been found
at the spot. The simple villagers had no clue who
the killers were. But they understood that this too
was part of the chain of secret killings that had
been taking place in various parts of Assam. But
nobody knew what the fault of this simple family
was.

looking for clues

Some clues had been found finally. The Justice

Saikia Commission report has reference to these
clues. The incident that had shaken up the whole of
Assam had its link to another incident that had
taken place a little while before. The previous day,
that is on September 10, a team of 20-25 killers
had killed a youth named Jugal Phukan on the sus-
picion of that he was a member of ULFA. The killing
took place in front of the houses of Niron Gogoi and
Phul Gogoi in the same village. Nobody could iden-
tify anyone from the gang of killers as they had
54 secret killings of assam

wrapped black clothes around their faces. Niron

Gogoi also injured one of his legs during this inci-
dent. The next day, Niron Gogoi claimed that a
bomb had been recovered along with the body of
Jugal Phukan. Niron Gogoi also told the officer-in-
charge of Kakotibari Police Station that ULFA boys
used to frequent Umakanta Gogoi’s house. They
used to not only have meals at Gogoi’s place but
also stay there. Soon after this claim, Niron Gogoi
was taken to Moranhat for treatment. The bomb
recovered from near Jugal Phukan’s body was
brought to his office by Sibsagar district superin-
tendent of police P K Lohia. Several people, includ-
ing Lohia and two journalists, died when Lohia was
displaying the bomb to a group of local media per-
sonnel. The very next night the sensational killing
at Umakanta Gogoi’s family took place. There was
a possibility that Umakanta Gogoi’s family had
been killed to avenge the death of police person-
nel.*5
Did ULFA cadre really use to visit Umakanta
Gogoi’s house?

Did ULFA cadre used to visit the house of this

simpleton? The eldest daughter denied such alle-
gations. She told the Commission that many peo-
ple used to visit their house, and if some among
them were ULFA cadre, they were not aware of it.
She alleged that Niron Gogoi’s confession to police
was the reason behind the barbarous act against
her family. That confession must have encouraged
the killers. SP Lohia had also died in a freak inci-
dent. On the other hand, Assam Police and SULFA
umakanta gogoi 55

had created unnecessary trouble in the whole

Borbil area in the name of search operations
against ULFA, and this had made Umakanta Gogoi
a worried man. In fact, he had told his brother Jugal
Gogoi about his apprehensions. But Jugal Gogoi
had advised him not to worry and inform the village
headman immediately if any untoward incident took
place. Significantly, Umakanta Gogoi had told his
eldest daughter also about his fears. It is suspect-
ed that maybe Gogoi had either inkling about the
possibility of such an incident or received some
threats. But before he could confirm this, he met
with his end.
Indra Borgohain, a popular man of the area,
had also told the Commission about the frequent
visits of some unknown faces to that area. Some
days before this incident, the Army, along with
some unidentified civilians, had created an atmos-
phere of terror in the whole area. Borgohain also
said that none from Umakanta Gogoi’s family had
been linked to ULFA. Still Umakanta Gogoi fell vic-
tim to the wrath of anti-ULFA elements.

how did the police play its role?

Surprisingly, the police did not take any step that

needs to be taken while investigating such cases.
Between 6 and 7 a.m., village headman Rubul
Satnami and some others informed the Kakotibari
police station about the incident. Initially, they could
not meet the officer-in-charge. Around 12:30 p.m.,
they met him but he refused to visit the crime-spot
56 secret killings of assam

saying that there was a problem with his vehicle.

Instead, his advice was that the bodies should be
brought to Mahmora on a pull-cart or by some other
arrangements. This statement was an indicator of
th e disinterest of the police to investigate the case.
The distance between Umakanta Gogoi’s house
and the Kakotibari police station was just seven
kilometres. It is really mysterious how easily the
killers could decimate an entire family at such a
location. Also, there was no police patrol that night.
That is why the people of the area pointed accus-
ing fingers at the police for this incident, saying that
perhaps it could happen because of the links
between police and the killer forces. The most sur-
prising thing was that police did not, even for once,
interrogate known SULFA leaders of the district,
namely Jayanta Hazarika alias Kushal Duari and
Mridul Phukan. There were allegations that police
did not note down any of the information provided
by the witness to the case, Indra Borgohain. From
all this, it looked almost certain that the incident had
happened because of the SULFA- police-Army
nexus.

what the Commission of Inquiry said?

The Commission of Inquiry declared several peo-

ple guilty for the incident after analyzing several
angles. Of particular interest was the fact that
police had not launched any probe to find out the
weapons or vehicles used in the incident. Though
the police searches had looked into the post-inci-
umakanta gogoi 57

dent scenario, there was no search operations fol-

lowing the incident. There was also ample scope to
point fingers to the fact that prior to the incident,
SULFA, police and Army personnel had frequently
visited the place. The failure to use any modern
investigating techniques and the dog squad during
the investigations and the administration’s failure to
send any condolence message to the victim’s fam-
ily could very well indicate that the incident had
happened within the very knowledge of people
responsible for maintaining law and order. In this
regard, the Sibsagar district police administration
and SULFA leaders of that place can be blamed. It
can be simply said that Sibsagar SULFA leaders
Jayanta Hazarika alias Kushal Duari and Mridul
Phukan alias Samar Kakoti along with the officer-
in-charge of Kakotibari police station and a section
of Sibsagar police were involved in this sensation-
al murder. The Commission also expressed the
view that neither any member of this unfortunate
family had been a member of ULFA nor any ULFA
member had taken shelter in that house.*6
NSUI taking out protest processions against secret
killings on the streets of Guwahati
jyotish sharma
It was just three days since the New Year had
dawned. But in Assam, the initial days of 2001 did
not begin in a peaceful manner. All around, there
was terror, violence and death. Those were the
days when dusk meant deserted roads, simply
because of the blood-letting. Even the fast-growing
Guwahati city had not escaped that atmosphere of
fear.
On January 3, Jyotish Sarma, his wife Anima
Devi and daughter Aparna Devi had an early dinner
and went to sleep. Sarma, a resident of Nabin
Nagar locality at the heart of Guwahati, was an
employee of Gauhati University. Around 11 in the
night, they woke up hearing somebody knocking on
the door and calling out, “Sarma-da, Sarma-da”. As
they opened the front door, they saw around six to
seven people standing outside, their faced covered
in black. As soon as Sarma came out, one of them
started questioning him— what is his name, where
is he originally from, what is his relationship with
Subhash Sarma, was he from Nalbari, and many
such questions. Without waiting for the answers,
they caught hold of him and told him that he would
have to show someone’s house at Chandmari
locality, which was around three km from there. The
62 secret killings of assam

masked man also gave the assurance that he

would be dropped at Chandmari. When Sarma’s
wife Anima and daughter Aparna protested saying
he would not accompany them at this time of the
night, the gang threatened them, saying all of them
would be shot if they utter anything more. And they
dragged Sarma away to a Gypsy standing about 30
yards from the gate of the compound. The Gypsy
did not have any number plate. As soon as the car
left, Anima and Aparna shouted for help, hearing
which neighbours Bhagawan Chandra Haloi and
Dhiraj Das came out. The helpless family sent
Haloi to Gitanagar Police station and Das to
Chandmari Police Station. Shortly thereafter, a
team from Gitanagar Police Station reached their
house and informed them that all police stations
had been informed about the incident through
wireless.
The next day, Sarma’s bullet-riddled body was
discovered near a temple at the Katala Borkuchi vil-
lage in Nalbari (around 70 km from Guwahati).
Villagers had heard bullet shots at night towards
the river embankment but due to fear did not step
out. They informed the police after finding the body
in the morning. Sarma’s brother Dilip Sarma identi-
fied the body after receiving information about the
recovery from police. Police recovered one empty
cartridge of a 9mm bullet pistol from the spot.
Sarma had two bullet wounds on his body.
Based on an FIR by Gaonburha (village headman)
Arabinda Kalita, the Nalbari police station had also
registered a case under number 6/2001 and had
started investigating. Already, relatives of various
jyotish sharma 63

ULFA leaders and members had lost their lives at

the hands of the secret killers. There were sporadic
protests against these killings in some parts of the
state. But the protests had not yet touched
Guwahati. But the killing of Jyotish Sarma left the
people of Guwahati shaken. On January 5, several
thousand people came out on the streets protesting
Sarma’s death. On January 6 too, several thou-
sand people took part in public protests. The
Postgraduate Students Union of Gauhati University
and the All Assam Students Union (AASU) had
taken the lead to organise these protests. Although
these killings were highly criticised in the local
newspapers, no public allegation was made
regarding who could be behind such incidents. But
after Sarma’s death the scenario changed. When a
procession on Guwahati’s streets, carrying
Sarma’s body, reached the Ambari area where the
ruling Asom Gana Parishad’s (AGP) headquarters
are located, people took out their anger on it by
openly raising slogans, accusing the AGP leaders
as well as the Government and the ministers of
being involved in the killings. The protesting crowd
also stopped in front of Usha Court apartments on
Zoo Road (officially known as the Radha Gobinda
Baruah Road), raising slogans against surrendered
ULFA (SULFA) leaders. Though people from vari-
ous professions also do reside in the apartment
complex, but at that point of time it was known as a
SULFA hub. Suspected ULFA members had
launched an attack on this complex earlier with
rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). There were
allegations that several SULFA leaders were a part
64 secret killings of assam

of the anti-ULFA operations and Usha Court acted

as a hub of these operations. The Justice Saikia
Commission too had received complaints to this
effect while enquiring into cases of secret killings.
Sarma’s killing acted as a catalyst for state-wide
protests, and soon thereafter, secret killings
became an important issue during Assembly
elections.

police investigations

Even though they were unable to identify the killers,

police were convinced that the killers were
Assamese speakers and knew Sarma before.
After the abduction, Sarma’s family sent neigh-
bour Dhiraj Das to the Chandmari Police Station to
find out if he had been dropped off there, as prom-
ised. Das found a CRPF contingent at Chandmari
and asked them if Das had been dropped there by
the abductors. They replied in negative. They told
him that they had gone towards Gitanagar area and
had picked up an abandoned scooter and that
Sarma’s case was different. Das returned to
Sarma’s residence, and informed the family mem-
bers and the police present there at the time.
Meanwhile, a student studying for graduation in
commerce stream, who used to live nearby, came
out hearing the commotion and learnt about the
incident from Sarma’s second daughter. At the
request of Sarma’s family members, he rode a
bicycle to Gitanagar police station to inform police
about it. After verbally informing police about the
incident, he returned in the police vehicle.
jyotish sharma 65

Chandmari police station’s the then in-charge

Nomal Chandra Gogoi said he had informed his
superiors about the incident when he heard about
it. Replying to queries from the Commission, he
said that sometimes CRPF jawans posted at the
Chandmari police station too wore black masks
around their faces.
According to Gitanagar Police Station in-charge
Mani Saikia, he personally went to Sarma’s resi-
dence after receiving the information about his
abduction at 11:12 p.m. and filed an FIR after learn-
ing the details. He started his investigations on the
basis of the complaint filed. He also took into cus-
tody, a person called Pratap Kalita, who had been
arrested by the Fatasil Ambari police station under
complaint number 5/2001. Similarly, he also took
into custody Ramesh Deka from Jagikona village,
arrested by the Gorchuk police Station. Gorchuk
Police had confiscated a pistol from Deka.
Gitanagar police station received this pistol as case
property. The officer received the news of recovery
of Sarma’s body at Nalbari at 8:15 p.m. on January
4. On January 6, he went to the spot where the
body was recovered and found two empty car-
tridges of 9mm bullets. Already, investigating
Officer M A Laskar of the Nalbari Police Station had
recovered an empty cartridge from the spot apart
from two broken bullets taken out from Sarma’s
body while carrying out the postmortem. *7
Mani Saikia later got forensic tests done on the
two empty cartridges that he had recovered. The
ballistic tests had confirmed that the firing pin
marks on the empty cartridges matched that of the
66 secret killings of assam

pistol confiscated by Gorchuk Police from Ramesh

Deka. A special note was taken about it by the
Inquiry Commission that Saikia had recovered two
empty cartridges from the spot two days after the
incident, from where the Nalbari investigating offi-
cer had already recovered one empty cartridge,
and also that two broken bullets had been recov-
ered from the body. The Commission also men-
tioned that this material had gone missing later
from police documents.

pk dutta’s version

Prasanta Kumar Dutta was the then Additional

Superintendent of Police in Guwahati. He is a 1987
batch Assam Police Service officer. Dutta’s batch
had taken special training in Punjab. Those were
the times when Punjab Police had attracted the
country’s attention by almost destroying terrorism
in the state. The main credit for this success in
Punjab was Assam-Meghalaya cadre IPS officer
K.P.S. Gill. He had gone on deputation from Assam
Police to become the director general of Punjab
Police. At that time, Punjab was under the grip of
terrorism. The Operation Blue Star initiated by Gill
had finished terrorism in such a way that today
there is almost no trace of terrorist activities in
Punjab.
Dutta informed the Commission that Gill had not
given any training to his batch in Punjab. But one
Inspector General from Assam had come to give
them training for a day. According to Dutta, he had
jyotish sharma 67

got promotion as additional SP in 1999. He further

said that though his responsibility was to control
crime in 16 police stations of the city, he had been
given responsibility of issues relating to extremist
terrorism too. According to Dutta, these matters
were personally supervised by the then SPs,
Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta and G P Singh. Dutta
denied that he knew anyone involved in the killing
and said that Sarma’s death was a result of infight-
ing between the two factions of ULFA. The
Commission has, however, refuted such a possibil-
ity. While referring to the sloganeering in front of
Usha Court on January 5 the commission, has
pointed towards the possibility of SULFA being
involved in the case. On the other hand, the Fatasil
police station arrested one SULFA member named
Pratap Kalita alias Nag and on the basis of his
statement, Gorchuk Police had arrested a ULFA
member Ramesh Deka with a pistol. It is significant
that two days after recovery of two bullets from
Sarma’s body, fired from this pistol, two empty car-
tridges were recovered by the in-charge of the
Gitanagar police station. Nalbari Police had already
recovered one empty cartridge from the spot and
two broken bullets from the victim’s body.*8
The Inquiry Commission also mentions that the
day Sarma was abducted, SULFA leader Abinash
Bordoloi was killed by suspected ULFA members in
Nalbari. This was the same person who was ques-
tioned in connection with the murder of family
members of ULFA leader Mithinga Daimary in
Barama by secret killers sometime before that. The
Commission also wondered if the two killings could
68 secret killings of assam

be somehow connected. Significantly, Subhash

Sarma, a prominent ULFA leader from Nalbari, was
the brother-in-law of Jyotish Sarma. There is a
thought that he was killed to pressurize Subhash to
forsake the path of extremism. But the Commission
could not identify the killers or definitely pinpoint the
motive behind the killing.
In the inquiry report of this case too, the
Commission directed that Sarma’s widow Anima
Devi should be given a one-time grant of Rs 5 lakh
for sustenance of the family.
dimba rajkonwar
Uma Rajkonwar of Lakua in Sibsagar was a lead-
ing freedom fighter in India’s struggle for
Independence. His wife Damayanti Rajkumari too
was a dedicated worker of the freedom struggle.
The youngest son of this couple is Rajib
Rajkonwar, who is now known by the name
Arabinda Rajkhowa. Rajib was one of the most
prominent among the founders of United Liberation
Front of Asom or ULFA. A few years after estab-
lishing ULFA, Rajib, who took the name Arabinda
Rajkhowa, became the organisation’s chairman.
The fight, which Arabinda and his comrades
began three decades ago, has traversed many a
difficult and tough time. Several thousand innocent
people have lost their lives in the way of this “strug-
gle”. Among them are many innocent relatives of
the ULFA members. Uma Rajkonwar’s eldest son
Dimba Rajkonwar was one among them.
Time: August 1998. The country was getting
ready to observe the Independence Day. It was a
difficult time fraught with terror and bloodbath in
Assam. And it was during these times that Dimba,
an employee of the Assam State Transport
Corporation complex in the Chowkidingee locality
of the Upper Assam town of Dibrugarh. It was the
72 secret killings of assam

evening of 11th August, upper division clerk Dimba

was busy in the workshop of the complex.
Dibrugarh, located on the banks of the mighty
Brahmaputra—also known locally as Lohit or
Louhitya—had somewhat cooled down after the
hot summer day. Around 6:45 p.m., a red-coloured
motorcycle with no number plate entered the com-
plex. As the Yamaha motorcycle stopped in front of
the workshop, no one could have imagined that the
complex was going to witness a terrible incident.
Two youths were riding the bike. As soon as motor-
cycle stopped, the pillion rider got down and walked
up a little. Dimba, father of two sons and one
daughter, did not suspect the youth’s motive.
Within a moment, the youth took out a small
firearm, and the cool evening of Chowkidingee
reverberated with the sound of the firing of two bul-
lets. Yard master Dimba fell down with two bullets
in his chest. The killer by then moved with a light-
ening speed to the waiting motorcycle, already in
the revving mode, and sped away. Among the wit-
nesses were station superintendent Gangadhar
Doley, a housewife Lakhimi Deka, a ‘mysterious’
man named Ramu Upadhaya and many others.
The floor of the workshop had become red with
blood, and a badly injured Dimba was fighting for
his life. Lakhimi Deka, seeing the incident, ran in
with a jug full of water. But she was so nervous and
afraid that she could not muster courage to give a
drop of water to an injured Dimba.
Almost immediately Dimba was taken to the
Assam Medical College Hospital of Dibrugarh.
Dimba’s wife Bharati Rajkumari had reached the
dimba rajkonwar 73

bus station around 7 p.m. after hearing about the

incident. By then he had been shifted to the hospi-
tal. A helpless Bharati rushed to the hospital. But
even before she could get there, her husband had
expired. Dimba had succumbed to the bullet
injuries. His fault: he was Rajib Rajkonwar alias
Arabinda Rajkhowa’s eldest brother.
Bharati Rajkumari, who belongs to a royal clan
of the Ahom community that had built “Bor Axom”
(Great Assam) by uniting the four ‘piths’ and had
ruled over Assam for 600 years, was rendered
speechless at the sight of her husband’s dead
body.

police investigations

The Dibrugarh Police had been informed of the

incident within minutes of its occurrence. Ramu
Upadhaya, a resident of Jiban Phukan Nagar under
Milan Nagar Police Station, had informed the police
of the two youths who had shot dead a person and
then fled towards Amolapatty at 6:45 p.m. At 6:50,
the incident had been recorded in the general diary
of the police station under serial number 279. Milan
Nagar Police Station immediately informed
Amolapatty Police Station’s assistant sub-inspector
K. Ahmed, the in-charge official at the main Police
Station and the district Superintendent of Police,
about the two men over telephone. The
Superintendent of Police had then relayed the
information to all police stations of the city and
instructed them to seal all entry and exit points of
74 secret killings of assam

the city and deploy additional police forces. Later,

the then SP K C Deka had said that it had taken
them about 15-20 minutes to seal the relevant
roads. *9
On August 12, Bharati Rajkumari filed an FIR at
the Dibrugarh Police Station. On the basis of this
FIR, the police registered a case and started inves-
tigations. On the same day, they questioned a top
SULFA leader Nayan Das, who had earlier surren-
dered to the police. During questioning, Das told
them that he had an unregistered Yamaha motor-
cycle. However, “Guli” (Das’s nickname which
means bullet in Assamese) was not arrested and
nor was his motorcycle seized. The police did not
even bother to ask him the colour of his motorcycle.
Nayan was released after police said they were not
being able to find any connection between him and
the murder. Later, the police questioned a number
of Dimba’s colleagues and concluded that they
could not get any clue about the killers as no one
could tell them anything about Dimba’s enemies, or
whether he had any. In 2003, the then Dibrugarh
SP S N Singh, in an affidavit, had said that the
investigations into the case were still on. According
to records, the police had also interrogated a youth
named Raju Phukan. During interrogation, he had
said that he had a red-coloured motorcycle. But the
police neither suspected him nor did they seize his
motorcycle. Some days later, on August 26, 1998,
Raju was shot by the Army. After his death, the
police said that they had been suspicious about his
involvement in Rajkonwar’s murder, but the investi-
gations did not proceed any further.
dimba rajkonwar 75

an eyewitness account

According to Chowkidinghee bus station superin-

tendent Gangadhar Doley’s statement, he had
been a witness to the murder. The killers had fled
via the Rodali Road after shooting Dimba.
According to him, a few months ago, Dimba had
said that he wanted to shift out of Dibrugarh. He
had been on the receiving end of a number of
phone calls asking his younger brother Arabinda
Rajkhowa to appear for peace talks. The unidenti-
fied caller had said that Arabinda would be made a
cabinet minister if he did so.

bharati rajkumari’s account

Dimba had been arrested several times by the

police under TADA. He had been arrested in 1992
but was released the same year. Since then, he
was being harrassed in different ways. It was then
that Bharati had filed an application demanding her
husband’s safety and security. After the writ petition
was filed, the TADA court had released Dimba on
bail for three months. This bail was valid till June
30, 1994. As soon as he was released on bail,
Dimba went to Delhi for treatment as his health had
detoriated due to police harassment. During that
period, on February 18, 1994, a group of eight
youths, with their faces covered, had visited
Dimba’s official quarters and inquired about his
whereabouts from Bharati. When Bharati told them
that her husband was in Delhi, they left.
76 secret killings of assam

Mysteriously, that same night, a similar group

had visited the residence of ULFA’s military wing
commander-in-chief Paresh Barua too and had
asked for his elder brother Dinesh. Next day,
Dinesh’s body was found lying near the road a little
away from their residence.
Dinesh’s murder had shaken the whole state.
Uma Rajkonwar’s family was terrified too. It was his
absence that had saved Dimba Rajkonwar’s life
that day. Four years later, however, the killers did
not leave anything to chance. According to
Bharati’s complaint, her husband was killed
because he was ULFA chairman Arabinda
Rajkhowa’s elder brother even though he had no
connection with Rajkhowa or the organisation.*10

ajay rajkonwar’s statement

According to Dimba Rajkonwar’s brother Ajay, his

elder brother “had no connection whatsoever with
ULFA. He was only a well-known social worker. I
think his murder was pre-planned. It was aimed at
creating terror and an atmosphere of terror.”
Ajay Rajkonwar’s family had approached the
courts after being constantly harassed by the police
and the military. The court had ordered that Dimba
Rajkonwar be neither harassed nor arrested. Even
though he had a security cover in the form of home
guards, somebody had left an unidentified dead
body in front of his house. The other day, the Army
had mercilessly thrashed a youth in Uma
Rajkonwar’s bedroom. The next day, his body was
dimba rajkonwar 77

recovered a km away from their home. After Paresh

Barua’s brother Dinesh Barua’s murder, Dimba’s
family had been afraid for him as the government
had been pressurising Uma, Dimba and even Ajay
to convince Arabinda to appear for peace talks.
Ajay, in his statement, had named super cop K
P S Gill as one of the adviser of the whole strategy
as he had learnt that he had advised the then Chief
Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta to follow the
Punjab model and pressurise the families or rela-
tives of ULFA members into asking them to join the
peace talks. Ajay had referred to two instances in
which the Army had told Dimba that if the peace
talks failed, it will not be good for him.
The then Chief Minister had even sent a mes-
sage to Ajay asking him to pressurise Arabinda to
come for talks. Ajay had informed them that he had
no contact with Arabinda. According to Ajay, this too
was a major reason behind Dimba’s killing. Ajay
had been running from pillar to post for security for
the family. He had even approached Chief Minister
Mahanta with an application for the same. But hav-
ing failed to secure adequate protection, he
approached the courts. A day before Dimba was
murdered, Ajay had informed the Inquiry
Commission later, another ULFA leader Munna
Mishra’s brother had been killed by secret killers in
Duliajan. On August 12, 1994, another person, one
of whose family member had joined the ULFA, had
been murdered in a similar fashion at Borpothar
near Dibrugarh University.
78 secret killings of assam

a news item in dainik agradoot

A news item published in Dainik Agradoot seven

years after his murder has now become a part of
the Commission’s probe. According to this news
item published on August 25, 2005, under pressure
from an MLA, Mahanta had been forced to remove
a 14-member team of SULFA from Lakhimpur
Hotel. The newspaper had also reported that a
gang led by SULFA leaders Krishna Hazarika and
Papul Saikia had come from Lakhimpur to
Dibrugarh to carry out several killings.

the commission’s probe

The Khagendra Nath Saikia Commission noticed

several anomalies in the police’s investigation of
the case. Chowkidingee bus station superintendent
Gangadhar Doley had informed the Commission
that after shooting Dimba, the two killers had fled
through the Rodali Path. Doley had told the
Commission that the road had a SULFA camp.
According to police records, the first person to
inform them about the killing was Ramu Upadhaya.
According to the Ramu, a resident of Milan Nagar
locality of Dibrugarh, the killers had fled towards
Amolapatty. The Amolapatty Path is located exact-
ly opposite to Rodali Path. On investigation, the
Commission has found out that the police used to
visit the SULFA camp on Rodali road. The
Commission suspected that Ramu Upadhaya had
misled the police by giving false information so that
dimba rajkonwar 79

the killers could reach their destination safely. *11

The second issue was power cut. Just after
Dimba was murdered, the power supply of the area
was disrupted. It is alleged that the supply was dis-
rupted to give the killers the time to reach their des-
tination safely. While examining the register main-
taining power cut records in Dibrugarh city, the
Commission had noted that there was no reference
to any load shedding at that time. During interroga-
tion, electricity board officials had said that while it
is possible that there could be power cuts due to
local faults, records of such incidents were not
available with the board.
The power was restored around 7 p.m. It is sus-
pected that power supply had been disrupted to
help the two killers escape. The third glaring fault in
the police investigation was interrogation of SULFA
leader Nayan Das. Witnesses had clearly told
police – that Nayan Das had a Yamaha motorcycle.
He had been called to the police station for ques-
tioning the next day purely on the basis of this
information. Nayan had said during questioning
that he had a new Yamaha motorcycle and it did
not have a registration plate. But the investigating
officer did not even ask him the colour of the motor-
cycle and released him saying he had no clue
about the killing. The Commission had asked the
transport department if a motorcycle could be plied
without a registration plate. According to an official
of the department, a new vehicle could be driven
without registration if its application for registration
had been accepted. Since Dimba’s murderers had
used a red Yamaha motorcycle to flee, the finger of
80 secret killings of assam

suspicion clearly pointed at Nayan Das. The

Commission smelt a rat when they noted that he
had been released without being asked about his
bike’s colour after he had admitted that he had a
Yamaha motorcycle without a registration plate.
The Police had also interrogated another youth
Raju Phukan on suspicion. He had a red-coloured
Yamaha motorcycle. Witnesses had informed the
police that on the day of the murder, Raju had been
seen riding the motorcycle several times near the
Chowkidingee bus station. However, Raju was
released immediately after interrogation. A few
days later, he was killed in Army firing. After Raju’s
death, the police had said they had reasons to sus-
pect that Raju’s had been involved in that killing
though the Commission is yet to be satisfied.
It was after three years of the Dimba’s murder in
August 2001, that police sent a team to recover
bullets from the spot for forensic and ballistic tests.
The investigations have revealed that a.32 or .38
bore pistol—which is banned—had been used to
kill Dimba. It was either a Mauser or a Tokerev pis-
tol—both of which are not permitted for use by
common people.
Meanwhile, even though the Commission had
summoned Ramu Upadhaya, who had earlier
made contrasting statements, to give his state-
ment, he failed to turn up. The report mentions him
as a man of suspicious character. The investiga-
tions proved that the police had not done enough to
identify the killers. Advocates Jamini Kumar
Phukan and P K Mushahary have told the
Commission that police investigations had two
dimba rajkonwar 81

basic faults. And those were—no use of modern

technology in what turned out to be a routine inves-
tigation, and no use of police dogs or finger or foot
printing techniques. Even Ramu Upadhaya, who
had informed the police about the incident, had not
been questioned about the red motorcycle used in
the killing. Neither the weapon was recovered nor
was the killers found. Even the routine test identifi-
cation parade to identify the killers had not done.
Though the other witnesses Lakhimi Deka and
Gangadhar Doley had seen the killers, no neces-
sary steps were taken to follow their leads. The
Commission had then recorded the statement of
the then Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta,
who had faced allegations regarding these killings.
According to Mahanta, the claim that if Arabinda
was convinced to sit for negotiations, Dimba would
be given a Cabinet post was totally false. “This
claim has been made to belittle me and my gov-
ernment politically. We had appealed to organisa-
tions like Asom Sahitya Sabha, Bodo Sahitya
Sabha, Mishing Sahitya Sabha, All Assam
Freedom Fighters Association (Sadou Asom Mukti
Jujaru Sangstha) to take the lead in convincing
ULFA members for talks. The claim that Dimba
Rajkonwar had been personally requested to do so
is not true,” he said. According to the Inquiry
Commission, only god knows whether the Assam
Chief Minister had made such a request or not.
On the same issue, Ajay Rajkonwar had
informed the Commission that after Dimba’s death,
district Deputy Commissioner P K Lohia had called
him to his chamber and told him that Chief Minister
82 secret killings of assam

Prafulla Kumar Mahanta had directed him to

request Ajay to take steps to bring Arabinda to the
negotiation table. Ajay had expressed his inability
in doing so. The Commission has mentioned that
Mahanta’s counsel S C Khaund could not prove
that this to be false.*12
The government has not made any ex gratia
payment to the family of the dead. In two Shraddha
ceremonies, neither any representative of the gov-
ernment was present nor was any condolence mes-
sage sent. However, before his death, the same
Dimba Rajkonwar had had two meetings with the
Chief Minister. The Guwahati High Court, in its
order after hearing the Bharati Rajkumar’s petition
about seeking security for Dimba in 1994, had said,
“The petitioner’s husband Dimba Rajkonwar may
again face torture at the hands of police or the Army
after his return. This need not be said that the
responsibility of ensuring a person’s life and securi-
ty lies with the state, and ensuring the security and
freedom of a person is the state’s compulsory duty.
Since the petitioner’s husband Dimba Rajkonwar
has been arrested on a routine complaint and since
the trial is going on under the relevant sections of
the Designated Court of Assam, there is no need to
re-arrest Dimba Rajkonwar, unless he is sought for
some other case. In this connection, confirming the
writ petition, I ask the police and the Army to ensure
that Dimba Rajkonwar is not re-arrested or
harassed for complaints for which FIRs have
already been filed against him. By another order,
the Army and the Police are directed that his wife
and daughter should not be harassed”.
dimba rajkonwar 83

Dimba Rajkonwar’s killing was the result of

long-term developments, which had started with
the government and its agencies trying to convince
the families of ULFA members to convince their
wards to eschew violence and join the peace talks,
and support the formation of the Unified Command
structure. After failing to achieve the desired
results, the Army, CRPF and the police used
SULFA to secretly plan out the elimination of ULFA
members as well as their family members through
‘ULFOCIDE’.
In this connection, the Commission had also
taken the witness of Pranab Borah, the then Chief
Secretary and the chairman of the Unified
Command’s strategic group. Bora said that the
Unified Command is not involved in this killing. He
was never cross examined.
The Commission had also appealed for the
statements of super cop K.P.S Gill in connection to
the allegations made against him. Gill, in an affi-
davit sent to the court, denied all the allegations
and clarified that he had not advised the Assam
Government to carry out such killings and neither
did the state government seek any such informa-
tion. A notice had then been issued to Dainik
Agradoot in connection with the news item pub-
lished regarding this but nobody replied. When
questioned in this regard, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta
said that the news item was false and motivated.
According to him, he had sent his clarifications to
the newspaper, which were never published.
However, on being unable to reply to several ques-
tions regarding the government and administration,
84 secret killings of assam

the Commission was of the opinion that he had

been a victim of memory loss.*13
Mahanta had said, “The day the incident hap-
pened, that is on August 11, 1998, I was the chief
minister of the state and as far as I know, no gov-
ernment official or member of my cabinet was
involved in the killing of Dimba Rajkonwar.” “I deny
Ajay Rajkonwar’s allegation that top officials of the
administration were involved in this killing.” “I deny
that during the period I was chief minister, the for-
mer DGP of Punjab Police, K.P.S Gill, had given
any advice to the government. I did not pressurise
or order Ajay Rajkonwar to bring ULFA chairman
Arabinda Rajkhowa to the negotiation table. But I
had appealed that the ULFA be brought to the nego-
tiation table under the aegis of (Asam) Sahitya
Sabha. I also deny the Ajay Rajkonwar’s allegation
that Dimba Rajkonwar was killed because of his fail-
ure to persuade Arabinda to come for negotiations.
I deny that this killing has been carried out to create
an atmosphere of fear and terror. My government
has never done anything to create an atmosphere
of terror and fear in the state. I also deny that
SULFA in association with the government was
directly involved in the killing of Ajay Rajkonwar’s
elder brother. I have not read nor found any state-
ment by SULFA that says ‘they would not cooperate
with the government in any such job’, as claimed by
Ajay Rajkonwar during his witness.”
The Commission was, however, stunned that
Mahanta in his affidavit defended not only himself,
the government, the Cabinet and government offi-
cials but also SULFA. It wanted to know the reason
dimba rajkonwar 85

for his giving a statement on SULFA’s behalf.*14

Mahanta said that though he knew about two
SULFA leaders from Dibrugarh, Jugal Kishor
Mahanta and Saurav Gogoi, he has met neither of
them. He knew Sunil Nath and Sailen Dutta
Konwar personally. He also knew about Usha
Court, which was once attacked by rocket-pro-
pelled grenades. But the police never informed him
of any untoward development. The Commission
then asked Mahanta about the secret killings that
were carried out from 1998 to 2001 and whether he
knew all the killers but had deliberately not given
their names. Mahanta denied this.
On the other hand, observing that the three
accused in this case, Krishna Hazarika, Nayan Das
and Raju Phukan, had been killed in various cir-
cumstances later, the Commission wanted to know
whether the government had been following a poli-
cy of “kill and getting killed”.
It described SULFA as an extra-constitutional
force and said that it is likely that the police used
SULFA to carry out such attacks. The Commission
said that lower, middle and senior level officials
deserve to be punished for their negligence in the
carrying out the investigation of the case and for
not being able to identify the killers. It also referred
to the “collective responsibility” of all the people
concerned in the government, be it political lead-
ers, or the minister-level administration. It also sug-
gested the dissolution of the Unified Command
structure and also advised that late Dimba
Rajkonwar’s wife Bharati Rajkumari be given a
one-time relief of Rs 5 lakh.
Even women were not spared by the secret killers
just because they were relatives of ULFA leaders
dr. dharani dhar das
The month of August 1998 was the darkest period
of Assam’s insurgency-plagued history. As guns
refused to go silent, innocent people were killed by
both ULFA militants and security forces from
Sadiya to Dhubri, the two farthest points of the
state in east and west.
Assam was bathing in blood in those times. On
one side, there were state-sponsored assailants
and on the other gun-totting ULFA militants, looking
for revenge. The former had been winning that
round of battle with covert and overt state support.
Unidentified assailants killed or maimed almost
every top ULFA leader’s relatives in tit-for-tat count-
er insurgency operations during that period. ULFA
too was not leaving any opportunity to target their
ex-cadres who had colluded with the security
forces. Even the aged, children and pregnant
women could not escape from their gunfire.
As the black-hooded state-sponsored assailants
roamed freely on the roads of the Brahmaputra val-
ley, by sunset most roads in Assam wore a desert-
ed look. By late evening, it was only the vehicles of
these assailants that moved and almost every week
they snatched away someone’s husband, some-
one’s brother, or sister. The state looked the other
90 secret killings of assam

way and in most cases believed to be colluding with

them as it felt that this was the most effective way
of tackling Assam’s insurgency.
One of the most shocking of all incidents came
from Barama, a small town in lower Assam, about
110 km west of Guwahati.
It was August 12, 1998. When media personnel
from Guwahati reached the small town after hear-
ing about the killings previous night, they saw four
bodies being cremated simultaneously.
In the four cremation beds, actually five bodies
were cremated. One of them was yet to see the
light of the world. They were ULFA Publicity Chief
Mithinga Daimary’s mother Phuleshwari Das, elder
brother Dr Dharani Dhar Das, wife Rupjyoti Das
and sister Latika Das.
All of them were shot dead in one of the most
horrific killings by the assailants in the Juluki village
near Barama. At that time, Rupjyoti was 20 weeks
pregnant. Only two survived in that horrific incident.
They were Dr Dharani Dhar Das’s son Bhaskar and
Das’s younger brother Nitul, who had come home
from Pune for vacation.
The incident had made Assam speechless. The
barbaric act had left everyone shocked. Everyone
cried that day in Barama, but all knew that it was
one of the “secret killings” going on in Assam and
no one could stop that.
Mithinga Daimary was then the Central Publicity
secretary of ULFA. Following an ideology, he had
joined the organisation and rose to become its
Central Publicity Secretary after leaving his home
and family almost a decade back.
dharani dhar das 91

His elder brother Dr Dharani Dhar Das was the

district anti-leprosy officer of Nalbari. More than a
doctor, he was more involved in the social activities
and had emerged as one of the most popular per-
sons of the area. He was also closely involved with
Asom Sahitya Sabha, the apex literary organisation
of Assam.
His satirical essays and mannerisms had made
him one of the most loved person of the area. He
had an identity of his own beyond being the elder
brother of Mithinga Daimary. That was also his
nemesis, which was well marked by the assailants.
The assailants realised well that he could be a “good
shot for ULFA”. The doctor’s only fault was that he
was the elder brother of ULFA’s publicity secretary.
On the fateful night of August 11, around 1 a.m.,
a group of assailants came to Nij Juluki village in
two vehicles. Armed with 9 mm pistols, .32 and .38
shot guns, the occupants of the two vehicles came
out brandishing weapons.
First, they rang the doorbell and then the front
door was banged. Years of midnight army intru-
sions for the family’s younger son had made all the
family members immune to such late night calls.
There had been innumerable search operations in
their house for Mithinga.
Thinking nothing about it, the front door was
opened and immediately, a hail of bullets pierced
everyone inside. The firing took place for more than
three minutes.
Firing over, the two vehicles once again wetn
back the same way and were seen by a village
defence party at Akhwra chowk.
92 secret killings of assam

police investigation

The Assam police got wind of the incident only the

next morning although the distance between the ill-
fated village and the police station of Barama was
barely a few kilometres.
The gunfire was heard by all in the neighbour-
hood. But such were those terrifying nights that no
one dared to come out to help the family.
Kalikanta Das, a retired school teacher, lived
next to Dr Das. The septuagenarian heard the gun
shots at around 12:40 in the night and he could
count five to six rounds of shots. But he, like others,
was too scared to come out. He was not sure
whether it was gun fight between ULFA and securi-
ty forces or something else.
He was terrified, kept quiet and waited for the
first break of light to come out. When he eventually
did come out to find what had happened last night,
he found Nirmali Das on the road.
Nirmali was Dr Das’s father Khagen Das’s
domestic help. Khagen Das was Kalikanta Das’s
elder brother. It was Nirmali who informed
Kalikanta that firing had taken place at Dr Das’s
house and that some people had actually fired on
the family members. She also told him that though
she was inside the house at that time, she had
somehow managed to flee.
By then, a few more of the villagers had also
trooped in. Everyone realised that something terri-
ble had taken place inside Dr Das’s home but no
one had any inkling of what lay in store for them
inside.
dharani dhar das 93

Collectively, they egged Nirmali to go inside the

house and see what had happened. She took a few
shaky steps inside, only to cry and ran out to inform
that everyone in the family had been killed.
One by one all the villagers entered the house
and were shocked to see the brutality of the
assailants. Lying on one side of the bed was moth-
er Phuleswai. Next to her was Dr Dharani Dhar Das
and wife Rupjyoti. Both were still holding hands.
Near their legs, lay their sister Latika. There was
blood everywhere and all of them had died instant-
ly.
But there were two survivors. One was 10-year-
old Bhaskar, who had somehow managed to hide
himself under the bed, and his uncle Nitul who had
managed to flee. The 10-year-old had seen every-
one in his family dying in front of him but had been
so horrified that he remained speechless till he was
discovered.
Kalikanta Das immediately informed the village
headmen Jitendra Nath Das and both of them then
rushed to the Barama police station to file an FIR.
They found officer-in-charge Dwijmoni Singh in
the police station and within half-an-hour the police
arrived at the spot. They recovered half-a-dozen
empty shells as well damaged cartridges from the
site. All belonged to AK-47 series.
The police did not take any finger prints nor did
they use sniffer dogs. Some time later, the then SP
Apurba Jiwan Barua and District Magistrate also
arrived at the scene. The officer-in-charge of
Barama police station asked all the police stations
of Nalbari district to monitor the movements of sur-
94 secret killings of assam

rendered ULFA militants through the wireless net-

work.*15
The police also interrogated two known SULFA
leaders, Abinash Bardoloi and Deep Choudhury,
about the case. They also interrogated one Dutta.
Although the secret killers were said to have
used Maruti vans, no SULFA cadre in of Nalbari
owned Maruti Vans at that time. Abinash had a
Maruti car. The three were not arrested as the
police found nothing objectionable after their inter-
rogation.
Proper investigation into the killings started only
on August 16, five days after the killings. The case
diary was written that day too but no one bothered
to send the cartridges to the forensic laboratory.
On August 19, the preliminary investigation
report, sent to the Superintendent of Police, sug-
gested that two Maruti vans had entered the village
from Guwahati and committed the crime and
returned to the city again. The report clearly
believed it to be SULFA’s handiwork. The report
was based on the lead received from the village
defence party, which had been guarding the
Akhwra Bridge that fateful night.*16
According to Nirmali Das, she and her husband
had gone to visit Khagen Das on August 8. She
had been working for Khagen Das for more than
four years before her marriage. After getting mar-
ried, this had been her first visit to the Das house-
hold.
On that fateful night, she had been sleeping
with Latika, Dharani Dhar Das’s sister. At around
12:30 in the night, she heard banging on the front
dharani dhar das 95

door. For both Latika and her, it was nothing

unusual as army and police regularly used to come
to their house in the dead of the night in search of
Latika’s brother, ULFA’s publicity secretary
Mithinga Daimary.
Without much concern Latika opened the door
while Nirmali fell behind. The killers immediately
opened fire and Latika received the first bullet in
her chest. Nirmali somehow managed to flee and
opening another door through which she reached
neighbour Prafulla Das’s house. She informed
them about the incident but everyone waited for
sunrise to check what had happened.

mithinga’s brother’s stand

Mithinga Daimary’s real name is Deepak Das. He

adopted the pseudonym while joining ULFA. Since
the death of his father Khagen Das, elder brother
Dr Dharani Dhar Das had taken the responsibility of
the head of the family. He had sent his youngest
brother Nitul Kachari to Pune to pursue a course in
cinematography.
According to Nitul, that evening, a Maruti Gypsy
had come to their house. The occupants in civil
dress talked to him wanted to know how a first timer
can identify their house. Three Gypsys had later
come to Akhwra chowk and ate something from the
roadside Sarma hotel. As the Independence Day
was approaching, the security was pretty tight.
However, nobody minded it and perceived it to be
a part of the security drill.*17
96 secret killings of assam

According to Nitul, those three vehicles were

later used for the killings. He further said that on the
night of August 11, the Barama police had removed
the security cover from the area around his village
to facilitate smooth operation of the assailants. The
assailants had returned that day and had tea from
Sarma hotel again.
The Officer-in-Charge of Barama Police Station
had travelled to the hotel in a requisitioned bus and
asked the occupants of the Gypsy whether the
assigned work had been done or not.
Nitul was convinced that his family had been
wiped out as revenge for the murder of a top
SULFA leader Tapan Dutta at Guwahati. The ULFA
had taken the responsibility for the killings. To
avenge the killings, according to Nitul, the senior
most SULFA leader Jugal Kishore Mahanta called
up one of his colleagues Tirtha Bhuyan of Barpeta
to plan the murders. Nitul particularly pointed to a
phone call and said that he was sure it was made
from the chamber of a doctor. He also said that all
the three vehicles were white and did not have a
number plate.
However, during the hearings of the Saikia
Commission, SULFA leader Jugal Kishore Mahanta
denied all these allegations. He mentioned that he
did not know any doctor’s chamber near the Usha
Court housing society. He also said that there was
confusion regarding the ULFA’s acceptance of
responsibility. He had also questioned ULFA’s
motive for killing Tapan Dutta in 1998 when he had
surrendered in 1992. He further said that although
in 1998, Reliance had introduced mobile telephony
dharani dhar das 97

in Assam, there was no STD service and hence

there no phone call could be made to Tirtha
Bhuyan of Barpeta.*18
The inquiry commission later questioned the
then Inspector General of Police (IGP) Operation G
M Srivastava but no significant information could
be extracted from him.

saikia commission inquiry

The Saikia Commission had taken note of the alle-

gations that the local police had withdrawn the nor-
mal security arrangement on that night in and
around that village. This was investigated and the
officer-in-charge of Barama police station had been
asked to explain his conduct. The officer, Dwijmoni
Singh, informed the Commission that he had
arranged for village defence force protection under
the leadership of village headmen Gopal Burman
on the Akhwra Chowk Bridge. Another CRPF patrol
party had been placed on the bridge of
Morapagaldiya on the National Highway 31.
The same village defence party, five days after
the incident, had informed the police officer that
they had seen two vans enter the village and go
back after 15-20 minutes. But the confusion
regarding the van or gypsy remained and the
Commission also could not clear it.
When asked as to why sniffer dogs were not
pressed into service, Dwijmoni Singh said that
since it had rained that night and he did not find it
necessary to use dogs as most of the clues had
98 secret killings of assam

already been washed away by the rain.

When confronted on the issue of not sending
the used cartridges to forensic laboratory, he
replied that since no arms had been recovered, he
did not find it necessary to send the cartridges to
the forensic laboratory.
The police officer informed the commission that
post mortem had been conducted on the bodies of
all four of them and Rupjyoti was found pregnant
with a 20-week baby who also died with the moth-
er.
The main complainant, Kalikanta Das, appear-
ing before the Commission, said that he did not
believe that Bodo extremists groups were involved
in the incident. When asked whether he suspected
the state government, he replied in affirmative. He
also pointed out that neither did the then Chief
Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta nor the Barama
local MLA or minister Rekha Rani Das Boro visited
the family, and nor did they announce any help for
the bereaved family members.*19
A host of other people also appeared before the
Commission. They included one of Dr Das’s
colleague, a journalist as well as some relatives.
According to local journalist Bhava Medhi, a few
days before the killings, a group of CRPF and
police had visited Dr Das’ house and harassed his
mother Phuleswari and had taken him to the police
station. There they tried to pressurise Dr Das into
using his influence on his younger brother to sur-
render. Before that, Dr Das’ ailing father Khagen
Das had also been pressurised in a similar fashion.
The same had happened with his sister Latika. The
dharani dhar das 99

jawans of 5 Dogra regiment, stationed near

Barama, during that time regularly used to visit the
Mithinga household and tried to force the family
members into persuading Mithinga to surrender,
On June 2, 2006, the then Chief Minister
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta had filed an affidavit
before the Commission saying that neither he nor
his government or anybody of the Unified
Command had ever pressurised Latika into asking
her brother Mithinga to surrender. The affidavit also
denied that the state government or the Central
government had hatched a conspiracy to eliminate
the Dr Das’ family.
However, the Commission said that the state
could not absolve itself of any responsibility despite
such affidavits. The Commission noted that no
Cabinet decision had been taken in this regard
although the matter had been discussed on the
floor of the Assam Assembly.
The Commission was of the view that there was
a definite political motive behind the killings and
clearly the ULFA leader’s family was the target. It
held the then state government responsible for the
act.*20
Another witness who testified before the
Commission was Khanin Ali Patgiri, an office bear-
er of the Asom Sahitya Sabha’s Barama unit with
which Dr Das was closely involved. According to
him, before that fateful night, Dr Das had told him
that there was a conspiracy on to eliminate his
entire family by a group of SULFA and security peo-
ple. He had noticed movements of some unfamiliar
faces and had been fearful.
100 secret killings of assam

The then SP of Nalbari district, Apurba Jiwan

Barua admitted before the Commission that the
SULFA had been used in the past to extract some
strategic information about the movements of the
ULFA and its hideouts as part of the counter insur-
gency operations. However, he denied that the
organisation had ever been directly used for the
anti-insurgency measures.
The late Dr Dharani Dhar Das, however, had
some inkling of what was coming because already
Aurobindo Rakhowa’s elder brother had already
been eliminated by SULFA. He feared for his life
but SP Apurba Jiwan Barua had dismissed all such
threats to Dr Das’ life. He also denied the fact that
SULFA leaders had been given a free movement
authority. He, however, admitted that the police
administration had tried to protect as well as help
rehabilitate some important leaders of the district
which included Abinash Bardoloi.
Abinash Bordoloi was later killed by the ULFA
and Barua had then informed the Commission that
he had been privy to that and by then he was trans-
ferred out of the district. The additional SP of the
district, Ranjan Bhuyan, admitted before the
Commission that there was a group of SULFA
cadre who had been given shelter in the police
reserve. But he denied that they were used to mur-
der Dr Das’ family.
The Inquiry Commission, in its report, said that
it was difficult to point out the real killers but the
needle of suspicion remained on SULFA. It said the
state had definitely facilitated the killings by helping
and abetting the SULFA cadre.*21
dharani dhar das 101

As compensation, the Commission suggested

that Rs 20,000 be given to Dr Das’ son Bhaskar
and brother Nitul Kachary as ex gratia and also
asked the local court to appoint a guardian for
young Bhaskar, who was a kid at the time of
killings, but has now grown into 20-year-old young
man.
Assam police DIG GP Singh facing the KN Saikia
inquiry commission
 haren teron
borhani teron
bipul teron
This incident happened just on the outskirts to
Guwahati, a bustling city considered the gateway to
India’s North-East. The cruelty of the incident that
occurred at the Lakhara Thapana village under
Basistha Police Station has shaken the people in
and around the village. The perpetrators, it seems,
did not value human life. Justice Saikia
Commission of Inquiry has carried out a detailed
probe into this incident, which is a part of the series
of killings that had taken place during the second
term of the Prafulla Kumar Mahanta-led state gov-
ernment of the Asom Gana Parishad party.

the night of the incident

Haren Teron’s family consisted of his wife Borhani

Teron, three sons and a daughter. His two sons
Putul and Bipul stayed with them while the third
one, Niron, lived separately. His daughter’s name
was Mamoni.
The trouble started when Putul decided to
embark on an uncertain journey in search of a “sov-
ereign” Assam. He joined the United Liberation
Front of Asom (ULFA). For the 50-plus Haren Teron
106 secret killings of assam

and Borhani Teron, the concept of Assam’s “sover-

eignty” was something way beyond their under-
standing. For them, to able to live peacefully, with-
out any worry, was the most important thing.
But on the night of March 8, 1999 everything
changed. Around 2:30 a.m. that night, a gang of 10-
12 people suddenly forced their way into their
house. Their faces were hidden behind ‘gamosas’
and they wore black clothes. The gang then fired
indiscriminately. Haren Teron died in his sleep,
without even realising what had happened. So did
Borhani and Bipul. It was sheer luck that Mamoni
escaped. She was sleeping in another room and
did not stir when she heard firing, and lay motion-
less beneath the blanket. The killers simply walked
away after the killings. That day, the new day
dawned upon the village with Mamoni’s wails.

why was haren teron’s family guilty?

Was Putul Teron’s enrolling himself in ULFA the

reason for these murders? The villagers are
unable to comprehend any other reason behind
the act. It was only after Mamoni’s cries reached
them that people gathered around the Teron
house. Niron Teron, whose house was just 200
metres away, too came there only then. He had
heard the gunshots, but had thought that some-
body was bursting crackers to scare away the wild
elephants who often scoured villages in the area
in search of food. It was only around 3:30 a.m.
that he came face-to-face with the lifeless bodies
haren teron/borhani teron/bipul teron 107

of his parents and brother. Only then did he

realise that what he had heard were not cracker
bursts, and sounds of terror unleashed by some
inhuman elements. Niron heard the gathered peo-
ple discussing that it must be the latest in the
series of secret killings going on in the state. The
villagers agreed on a single point of view—that
Haren Teron’s only fault was that his son Putul
Teron alias Babul Ingti was a part of ULFA. They
were forced to think on those lines due to the
spate of such killings on in the state.

what did lachit bordoloi say?

Lachit Bordoloi, the chief advisor of human rights

organisation Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti
(MASS) was not an eye witness to the incident. But
as the leader of the body, he had visited the spot.
He had met Niron Chandra Teron and Mamoni
Teron and sought to know the details of the inci-
dent. The 17-year-old Mamoni Teron told him that
when the killings happened, she was hiding under
the blanket and did not even stir due to mortal fear.
Only after the killers left did she venture out and
started wailing after seeing the blood-soaked bod-
ies of her parents and brother. She believed that
the people who carried out the killings were from
the police. Lachit Bordoloi was also present during
the shraddha ceremony of the deceased. There too
he heard villagers discussing about the families of
Babul Ingti and Nirmal Boro—senior leaders of
ULFA—which had been attacked by SULFA people
108 secret killings of assam

residing in the Usha Court complex in Guwahati to

avenge the ULFA attack on the complex. According
to Lachit Bordoloi, after ULFA attacked Usha Court,
superintendent of police P K Dutta reached the
place for inspection but did not prevent the SULFA
cadre from coming out of the complex with
firearms. At that time, it had been alleged that the
government had given the SULFA an unofficial
licence to carry out a mafia rule and run the so-
called syndicates. Bordoloi had an unambiguous
view that the state government had a hand in the
rise and the free run given to SULFA those days.
He believed that by carrying out such acts, the
state government wanted to pressurise the ULFA
cadre to surrender and thus run the affairs of the
state smoothly. He had reasons to feel that the
NDA government at the Centre too supported the
state government’s stand and that was why the
Governor of the state had refused to permit the
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to interrogate
Prafulla Mahanta in connection with the multi-mil-
lion-rupees Letter of Credit (LoC) scam that had at
that time rocked the state. Bordoloi also said that
most incidents of secret killings had been put on
the backburner by the state police. He also claimed
that the police had provided vehicles and other help
to SULFA for such activities.*22

niron teron’s version

Haren Teron’s son Niron Teron, who had been liv-

ing separately from his parents, had also deposed
haren teron/borhani teron/bipul teron 109

before the Commission. That night, he had mistak-

en the sounds of the gunshots to be those of crack-
ers used to scare away wild elephants. Only
around 3:30 a.m. did he get to know about the inci-
dent. He was left speechless at the cruelty. Such
was its impact that going and lodging an FIR at the
nearest police station did not even occur to him. He
and others remained at the spot till about 9:30 am
when they saw Basistha police personnel pick up
empty cartridges from the spot. Later, with the help
of around seven villagers, the bodies were taken to
the MMC Hospital in the city for post mortem. Niron
Teron also told the Commission that no compensa-
tion had been paid by the government after the
incident.

two incidents prior to this incident

Two incidents took place before the killings at

Thapana Lokhora. The Saikia Commission saw an
apparent link between these incidents. One of them
took place at 7 p.m. on March 7, 1999, at the Usha
Court complex. There had been a sudden firing on
the complex, which was located on the busy Zoo
Road (Radha Gobinda Baruah Road) in the heart
of Guwahati. The incident had shaken up the whole
city, particularly because it was the abode of sever-
al top SULFA leaders. The finger of suspicion for
this attack pointed at ULFA, more so because the
SULFA leaders living in that apartment complex
used to hold fairly senior positions in their organi-
sation before they surrendered. After the incident,
110 secret killings of assam

SULFA leaders had come out of the complex with

firearms and were in an aggressive mood. The
media had, at that time, reported that senior police
officer P K Dutta had inspected Usha Court imme-
diately but did not question any SULFA leader
about why they were carrying firearms and neither
did he prevent them from doing so.
Before the sensation created by this incident
could die, another incident took place on the morn-
ing of March 8. Around 5 a.m., an armed gang of 4-
5 youths, with their faces covered, visited the office
of Bhogeswar Teron, a secretary of the Karbi
Student’s Association, located in the Ambikagiri
Nagar area of Guwahati. They were looking for
Babul Ingti, an ULFA leader, and identified them-
selves as police personnel. The gang blindfolded
Teron and carried him to an unknown destination in
a car. He was reportedly taken to the basement of
a house and was severely tortured. They wanted to
extract information about Babul Ingti’s whereabouts
from him. Despite torturing him, they could not
extract any information about Babul Ingti, and he
was dropped near his office in a bad condition. He
reached his room in the morning of March 9 follow-
ing which his hostel mates informed the Geeta
Nagar police station of his return, after which a
case was registered in this connection.

who killed haren teron’s

family members?

The moot question of this case is—who killed

Haren Teron, his wife and his son? Usha Court had
haren teron/borhani teron/bipul teron 111

been attacked at 7 p.m. on March 7 while

Bhogeswar Teron had been abducted at 5 a.m. on
March 8. On the other hand, the brutal incident at
Lokhora Thapana village took place at 2:30 a.m. on
March 8 itself. This makes it apparent that there is
some connection between the abduction of
Bhogeswar Teron and the killings of the Terons.
What is significant is that Bhogeswar Teron had
been tortured for information on Babul Ingti. The
Saikia Commission too pointed at the possibility of
the SULFA and the local police joining hands to kill
the three members of the family as they believed
that ULFA was behind the attack on Usha Court.
On the other hand, Lachit Bordoloi’s deposition
added a new angle to the case. According to his
deposition, the police may have been hand-in-
glove in the attack on Usha Court. He believed that
the police deliberately attacked Usha Court so that
an angry SULFA attacks the family members of
ULFA cadre. In fact, Bordoloi had even issued a
press release in which he mentioned the names of
G M Srivastava, P K Dutta and several other police
officials. However, it is a fact well known that the
police used to regularly visit Putul Teron and pres-
surize him into getting his son surrender although
Haren Teron had repeatedly pleaded his inability to
do so. Niron Teron had told the Commission that
during their frequent visits, the police had got sev-
eral blank papers signed by them.
112 secret killings of assam

the role of the police?

The police’s role in the case has always been

under a cloud. The officer who had come to visit the
spot never showed any urgency usually expected
in such incidents. He did not take any notes of the
information that Niron Teron and Mamoni Teron
provided him, nor did he question Mamoni about
the killers and about the sequence of events espe-
cially since she was the sole eye-witness of the
incident. The city police did not bother to speed up
their investigation into the Usha Court incident
either, nor did they show any urgency in the
Bhogeswar Teron abduction case, which could be
an indication of the alleged involvement of both the
police and the SULFA in the incidents. Though an
element of mystery about the perpetrators of the
Usha Court attack case remains, the police’s sym-
pathy so visible towards SULFA leaders after the
attack, was definitely missing when it came to the
Teron family.

the role played by the state government

The then Home Minister cannot escape responsi-

bility for this incident. The government did not take
any measures to provide safety to the family mem-
bers of ULFA despite repeated attacks. The Home
Department too did not seem too perturbed about
the fact that SULFA members had firearms. Even
the Home Department may be implicated in this
case.
haren teron/borhani teron/bipul teron 113

what the commission said in the end?

The Commission looked into all aspects of the

case. After going through the depositions of the wit-
nesses and the overall situation in the state, the
Commission said that SULFA leaders and Usha
Court residents Jugal Kishor Mahanta, Bhaskar
Sarma and Dibakar Deka were directly or indirectly
involved in the killings. Even the Guwahati Police
had been involved for they had deliberately not
shown much alacrity in carrying out the investiga-
tions. On the other hand, the state Home
Department was visibly detached about the inci-
dent which makes the Home Minister liable too, to
some extent.*23
The then Assam Governor Lt Gen S K Sinha and the
then Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta
rajesh mishra
rajib koch
The name of Krishna Hazarika, SULFA leader from
Tezpur, had got embroiled in the allegations regard-
ing the secret killings that were taking place all over
the state. After there were allegations that Krishna
was connected to several killings in Guwahati and
the killing of ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa’s
elder brother Dimba Rajkonwar in Dibrugarh, the
matter reached the Commission. While he was a
member of ULFA, Krishna had been arrested by
police after creating sensation in Tezpur through
incidents like killing of army officers and attacks on
CRPF. Hazarika, who had surrendered immediate-
ly upon his release, had created a reign of terror in
the Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Sonitpur districts of
northern Assam. Hazarika and his associate Bibek
Nath were the main accused in the killing of Rajesh
Mishra and Rajib Koch.
Rajesh and Rajib were abducted from
Madhabdham in Tezpur city. Rajib’s brother-in-law
was undergoing a treatment at the Sukhada
Nursing Home in Tezpur for some kind of serious
ailment. Rajesh ran an electrical goods store by the
name of Jyotishman Commercial in the city. Rajib
used to work in that shop. They shared a good rela-
tion due to this connection. On September 19,
118 secret killings of assam

1999, both went to the hospital to inquire about

Rajib’s brother-in-law. Around 11:45 p.m., the doc-
tor asked them to immediately shift the patient to
Guwahati for an advanced treatment. They went
out on Rajesh’s scooter in search of an ambulance.
The roads were deserted at that midnight hour.
Both reached Madhabdham and started looking for
an ambulance. When Jiban Baruah, a guard told
them that an ambulance was available, they start-
ed negotiating the money. Suddenly two Gypsy
cars screeched to a halt from both sides. Around
five to six youths in police uniforms came down
from the car. All of them were carrying deadly
weapons. Without any word, they dragged Rajesh
and Rajib into the cars. Taken aback at the sudden
development, Rajesh shouted at Jiban to take care
of his scooter. Nobody came to know about the
incident until morning, when Jiban informed sever-
al people about the late night abduction.
The residents of Tezpur, believed to be the
birthplace of princess Usha of Usha-Aniruddha leg-
end, are well accustomed to this form of terror. In
1994, body of Biswajit Bora, a popular youth, who
had been abducted by a few unknown men, was
recovered from the Brahmaputra River. The impact
of the incident was felt all over the state. There
were large-scale protests in the city. And with the
abduction of Rajesh-Rajib, the scar of the incident
has deepened in the hearts of the people and has
left them terrorised.
As Rajib and Rajesh did not return, other rela-
tives present at the nursing home had arranged
another vehicle to take the patient to Guwahati.
rajesh mishra/rajib koch 119

Even till the next morning, neither of the families

had received any information about the night’s inci-
dent. Quite naturally, both families were worried as
Rajib and Rajesh had not returned. On September
29, Rajib’s father Bhola Koch went to Rajesh’s res-
idence to inquire about him. He thought that
instead of returning home, Rajib might have decid-
ed to sleep at Rajesh’s place. But Bhola Koch
learnt from Rajesh’s mother Shashiprabha Devi
that neither Rajesh nor Rajib had returned home
the previous night. The families got worried and
decided to go to Madhabdham to inquire since they
knew the two went to that place to look for an
ambulance. Around 9 a.m. they reached
Madhabdham. Already, there was a small crowd in
front of Madhabdham. They were discussing about
the two boys abducted the previous night. Different
people were giving different testimony to the inci-
dent. Some said that it was the handiwork of the
city’s secret killers.
Rajib’s father and Rajesh’s mother were left
shocked upon hearing the news. Both spoke to
Madhabdham guard Jiban Baruah to find out more
about it. Jiban Baruah told both of them he could
recognize some of the people who had come in the
two vehicles. They were – Krishna Hazarika and
Bibek Nath. Apart from them, he said, he could also
recognize Achintya Das and a few others. Krishna
and Bibek were at that time SULFA leaders known
for creating terror. They were carrying out illegal
activities in both Tezpur and Lakhimpur, creating an
atmosphere of terror. Both were faces of terror for
the common people. Having learnt that Rajib-
120 secret killings of assam

Rajesh had been abducted by this group, their par-

ents felt totally at a loss.
Rajib’s father filed an FIR at the Kacharihat
police station that came under the Tezpur main
police station. But police did not give any impor-
tance to the incident, and as a follow up, he filed
another FIR at the Mahabhairab Police Station in
the afternoon.

police investigations

The only witness to the incident was the guard at

Madhabdham. After a detailed FIR was filed by the
families of those abducted, police registered a case.
The apparent attempt by police was to establish it as
a case of fight over land grabbing rather than as a
case of secret killing. According to GR case no.
1109/99 of Tezpur, a piece of land owned by a per-
son called Putul Bora of Nikamul Satra was under
dispute. Rajesh Mishra and Rajib Koch had
opposed Bora’s move of taking possession of that
piece of land. According to them, a person named J
P Yadav had already bought that piece of land. This
led to a dispute between Putul Bora and the two.
Putul was related to SULFA member Bibek Nath.
According to the complaint, it was Putul who had
engaged Bibek and Krishna to abduct the two.
Police filed Case No. 541/99 and named Putul Bora,
Bibek Nath and Krishna Hazarika as accused.
Though there was a speculation that a youth named
Achintya Das was driving the car in which the two
were taken away, he was not notified as an accused.
rajesh mishra/rajib koch 121

According to a report submitted by the police,

though Krishna and Bibek had been arrested in
connection with this case, both managed to escape
from the police station. The reports also mentioned
that while Krishna had admitted during the process
of interrogation his involvement in the abduction,
he refused to admit it in front of the magistrate.
Bibek was latter re-arrested by the police. He
denied being involved in any land dispute.

the commission’s inquiry

The Commission had issued notice to several peo-

ple in connection with this case. Krishna Hazarika,
the main accused had been killed in an encounter
with police at Jorabat near Guwahati. During inter-
rogation, Bibek claimed that he was not involved
with the land dispute.
The Commission also enquired whether or not
this case was related to the ‘secret killings’. It
inquired into some old information to decide
whether it would be a land dispute case or one of
abduction since both aspects had come up during
the probe. In this connection, complainant Bhola
Koch was questioned about the death of his eldest
son Munindra. According to Bhola, Munindra had
died in a road accident in 1994. But a witness
named Swapan Koch had told the Commission that
Munindra was a member of the ULFA. He had been
interrogated by the then additional superintendent
of police Abhijit Bora in Tezpur. Bora had informed
that after registration of the case, Krishna had been
122 secret killings of assam

arrested from Jamuguri on October 3, 1999. He

and Bibek were able to escape from the police cus-
tody.
The Commission also specially mentioned one
particular thing – that is a debate in the Assam
Assembly some time after the incident. In the
debate records of the October-November session,
No. 3, page 73, the abduction case was clearly
recorded. The debate indicated that the family had
some kind of connection with the ULFA. That is why
the Commission chose to take up this case along
with other ULFA-related cases.
Rajib and Rajesh could not be traced since
then. The incident had led to a mass upheaval in
the city. The Tezpur Citizen’s Forum (Tezpur
Nagarik Mancha) had even submitted a memoran-
dum to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
on the SULFA menace in the city. People had taken
out a protest march and destroyed an illegal camp
of SULFA. A few people recovered police uniform,
arms and weapons from a camp located near
Ananta Cinema Hall and deposited them with the
deputy commissioner Naba Kumar Chetia in the
presence of local MLA Brinadban Goswami,
Padma Hazarika and Rajesh’s mother.*24

shashiprabha devi’s statement

Primary school teacher Shashiprabha Devi had

informed the Commission soon after the incident
that she, as a part of a delegation, had gone to
Dispur and meet Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. She had
rajesh mishra/rajib koch 123

requested the Chief Minister to take steps to rescue

Rajib and Rajesh. In reply, Mahanta said that his
effigy had been burnt in Tezpur and then people
had come to meet him. Shashiprabha told him that
though his effigy had been burnt, he was still alive
and should take appropriate steps with regard to
the case. Mahanta dismissively said he would look
into the matter. She had also informed the
Commission that Rajib Koch was a good-natured
boy and that is why Rajesh had been friends with
him. She wanted to ask Hazarika and Bibek why
the two had been abducted, but she never got the
required permission.*25

the debate in state assembly

On November 2, 1999, (now AGP president)

Brindaban Goswami raised the issue in the State
Assembly during Zero Hour. Giving the
Government version in this regard, Prafulla Kumar
Mahanta had said that investigations had shown
that abducted Rajesh Mishra and SULFA Bibek
Nath had an ongoing land dispute between them.
Indian Tea Association secretary J P Yadav had
bought a piece of land near 155 Tezpur Race
Hospital. Advocate Putul Bora was also trying to
buy the same piece of land. That was why Putul
Bora asked Bibek Nath to occupy that piece of
land. Yadav asked for Rajesh Mishra and Rajib
Koch’s help in this regard and they agreed to help
him. Police meanwhile arrested Putul Bora along
with Krishna Hazarika. During interrogation,
124 secret killings of assam

Hazarika denied being involved in the incident.

Putul Bora confessed to the conspiracy and the dis-
trict administration and police were trying to arrest
Bibek Nath. Putul Bora admitted that he had asked
his brother-in-law Bibek to occupy the land but
claimed that he was not involved in the abduction.
The officer-in-charge of Tezpur main police station
and the district additional superintendent of police
were suspended for lacunae in investigation in the
case.

bibek nath’s statement

During interrogation by the Commission, Bibek

Nath said he got to know about the incident only on
September 29, 1999. According to Nath, on the
same day, he got a telephone call from Sonitpur
superintendent of police L R Bishnoi asking him
whether he was involved with the previous night’s
incident. Bibek told him he did not know anything
about the incident. In reply, the police officer told
him that people suspected him and asked if he had
anything to say in this regard. Bibek made a state-
ment that he was at his home at the time when the
incident took place and he had no clue about it.
Bibek told the Commission he had not met the SP.
After that Bibek came to Guwahati and met the
then Inspector General of Police (Investigations) G
M Srivastava. He informed Srivastava that though
people had alleged that he had been involved in
the incident, he was not. The IGP told him that he
would inquire into the case and asked Bibek to stay
rajesh mishra/rajib koch 125

in Guwahati for about two months. Soon after that,

Bibek returned to Tezpur and surrendered.
The Commission had questioned Srivastava in
connection with this statement of Bibek. Srivastava
said he did not remember if Bibek had come to
meet him, but said what Bibek had said in this con-
nection were self contradictory. He said Bibek was
not able to even say where his residence was and
had claimed that he had met him (Srivastava) at his
Bhangagarh residence and also claimed that he
had met him in his office, and had pointed out that
his residence was located at Ulubari locality.
Srivastava suspected that Bibek wanted to escape
responsibility by naming a top police official.
While the Commission could not ascertain what
happened to the two youths, it mentioned that MLA
Brindaban Goswami had said during a statement in
the Assembly that they had died. The Commission
said it was a case of missing persons and asked
the government to provide relief of Rs 5 lakh each
to the two families without any delay.*26
Security men guarding the jungles of Assam
 shukuri bodo
kantaram bodo
One could feel the air of muted suspense in the
Belguri Village of Sonapur under Kamrup district.
That day, people were afraid to look at one anoth-
er. In fact, the barbarous and dastardly act shook
the very soul of the village. There was this elderly
couple who was full of joie de vivre even at the
autumn of their life and who were loved by the
entire village. But on March 8, 1999, the people in
Belguri woke up to the most shocking news of their
life: Kantaram Bodo, 90, and his wife Shukuri Bodo,
80, had been murdered by cold-blooded assailants
during the night that had just ended.

how did it happen?

Around 4 am on that fateful day, seven to eight

armed men entered the house of Kantaram Bodo
and started indiscriminate firing. Bodo and his wife
died on the spot and their daughter Rambha was
seriously injured. A case was registered (45/99) in
the Basistha police station as a case of one more
of those secret killings going on in the state.
Why were they killed?
130 secret killings of assam

Why were this loving elderly couple killed? The

answer is simple. They were the grandparents of
Nirmal Bodo alias Teertha Bodo, a top ULFA leader
of that time. Rambha Bodo was his mother.
According to the Saikia Commission, this incident
could be seen as a retaliatory action to the greande
attack at Usha Court on March 7. The Usha Court,
situated at the heart of Guwahati city, was the den
on SULFA leaders. On the evenining of March 7
the generade attack shook the building and the
prime target was the leader of the SULFAs J K
Mahanta. The Commission found that killing of the
Bodo family was a direct retaliation of the greande
attack and orchetsted by the SULFAs of the Usha
Court.

what did rambha bodo say?

Rambha was admitted to the Gauhati Medical

College and later she deposed before the Saikia
Commission. On March 8, around 4 am, the entire
family got up at the sound of someone opening the
door. Rambha saw two men coming inside. Some
others followed soon. They wanted to know from
Rambha how many persons were in the family.
When she said three, they inquired about Nirmal
Bodo. They even asked about his brothers. After a
while, they sat down at the veranda. When
Kantaram Bodo came out of the house, the armed
men started firing at him and also on Shukuri who
had followed her husband. They fired at Rambha
too. She lay unconscious for two hours. When she
shukuri bodo/kantaram bodo 131

regained sense she felt very thirsty. She went to

her neighbours for water and narrated the whole
incident. Kantaram and Shukuri were dead by then.
According to Rambha, the first two men, who
entered their house, were aged between 45 and
50. They spoke in Assamese. The other killers
were younger. There was no electricity in the house
that night. Interestingly, one week before this inci-
dent Pradeep Bodo, Nirmal’s brother, was put in jail
without any reason. That saved his life. She also
added that police and military forces often came to
their house and inquired about Nirmal. They even
threatened to kill him.*27

what did nirmal bodo say?

Nirmal joined ULFA in 1989. He was a trusted lieu-

tenant of the ULFA leadership and was responsible
for the Goalpara district unit of the outfit. In 2000,
he surrendered. His mother had told him that the
killers’ faces were covered and she did not see any
vehicle used by them. He also complained that the
police and military forces often harrassed his fami-
ly when he was away. In fact, his brother Pradeep
was put in jail twice without any fault of his.

police investigation

The police investigation was plain shoddy. The car-

tridges found at the spot were not sent for forensic
and ballistic examinations. There was no informa-
132 secret killings of assam

tion on the vehicles used by the killers. The police

also did not try to examine if there was any con-
nection between the killings at Usha Court a day
before and this incident.

saikia commission report

After examining various angles, the Commission

came to the conclusion that this incident was linked
to the grenade attack at Usha Court. There is a
possibility that the families of Haren Teron and
Kantaram Bodo were annihilated just to take
revenge upon the attackers of Usha Court. Two top
ULFA leaders belonged to these families. The bon-
homie between SULFA leaders of Usha Court—
Jugal Kishore Sharma, Bhaskar Sharma and
Dibakar Deka—and the police came also to the
notice of the Commission which believed that the
police had previous knowledge about the killings.
The Commission also blamed the state Home
Department for this incident and severely criticized
the role of city police.*28
Surprisingly, the government did not send con-
dolences to the aggrieved family, nor were they
compensated. This further indicates that besides
SULFA members, police and the government also
had a role in these killings.
The Commission recommended financial aid to
the kith and kin of the victims.
dwizen haloi
It was January 4, 2001. 1:30 am. The whole of
Nalbari town was draped in a wintry cold wave. And
then rang the phone of Nalbari Police Station:
“There is a firing at the residence of Dwizen Haloi,
please come fast.”
The caller was Makhan Haloi, a neighbour of
Dwizen Haloi. The officer in-charge of the police
station immediately registered case no 106 in the
general diary and ordered Sub-Inspector S.
Malakar to take necessary action. Malakar jumped
into the action and rushed to the spot braving the
chill of a January night.
Later, around 6 in the morning, Rajanikanta
Haloi, son of Deep Chandra Haloi, resident of Ward
No 12, Nalbarai Khata, reached the police station
with a complaint. He was yet to come to terms with
the reality after the dreadful incident of night that he
was witness to. Some unidentified men wearing
mask came to the house of Raj Haloi, elder broth-
er of Rajanikanta and asked them to open the door.
On being refused, they forcibly broke open the
door and first entered the room of Pulen Haloi,
nephew of Dwizen Haloi. A terrified Pulen showed
them Dwizen’s room and the killer party swung into
action immediately. First they rained bullet on
136 secret killings of assam

Dwizen and then they turned to Pulen. Even Arup

Talukdar, a guest to the Haloi family that night, was
not spared. All three were rushed to hospital once
the masked men had left, but only Arup reached
Guwahati Medical College Hospital alive. Dwizen
died at the spot while Pulen lost the battle with bul-
lets on the way to hospital.

the investigation

What was most shocking was that the gruesome

incident happened just one kilometre away from
the police station. When Sub-Inspector Malakar
reached the spot, Dwizen’s body, soaked in blood,
was lying on the floor of his bed room. Malakar did
not have time to waste. He sent for the photogra-
phers to capture the crime spot in films. Soon,
Armymen of the 5th JAK Light Regiment, stationed
at Gopal Bazar camp, also reached the spot. Five
empty cartridges of 9 mm pistol and three empty
cartridges of AK47 were recovered. These were
sent to the 14th Assam Police Battalion at
Doulashal in Barpeta district.
The Saikia Commission report suggests that
there was an attempt to protect the accused in the
Dwizen Haloi and Pulen Haloi double murder case
(No 5/2001) registered at the Nalbari Police
Station.
The case was investigated by the officer in-
charge of Nalbari Police Station and Sub-Inspector
Malakar. The Deputy Superintendent of Police
(HQ), Nalbari and Superintendent of Police, Nalbari
dwizen haloi 137

supervised the probe. The investigative officers

interrogated seven persons initially. They were:
Rajanikanta Haloi (he filed the case), Bapan Haloi
(he first informed neighbour Makhan Haloi about
the incident), Chabin Das, Anil Haloi, Makhan Haloi
(he made the first call to the police station) and
Bharati Haloi, Dwizen’s wife. The team of village
defence force, who were patrolling on that fateful
night, some SULFA members—Tapan Talukdar,
Parameshwar Rajbangshi alias Pinku, Mrigen
Haloi, Suren Deka alias Suren Roy, Shailen Roy
alias Sharat Deka, Ganesh Kumar (resident of
Kandu in Nalbari district) and Dinesh Das (Burhi
Nagar in Nalbari district) were also interrogated..
According to Rajnikanta Haloi, the killer gang
had 5-6 members and they were all masked.
Interestingly, just a day before this incident, uniden-
tified assailant had shot dead SULFA leader
Abinash Bordoloi. According to police, this murder
had created a panic among the SULFA members in
the district and they were all in the police camp for
security. So, the investigative officers ruled out the
involvement of SULFA members and instead point-
ed the finger towards ULFA. But the fact remains
that Dwizen Haloi was most probably killed as a
revenge killing of Abinash Bardoloi and police tried
its best to give a colour.

different versions

Bharati Haloi, wife of Dwizen: “On the night of

January 3, I along with my husband Dwizen, son
138 secret killings of assam

Ankur and daughter Barnali was sleeping in our

bed room. Our nephew Pulen was sleeping in
another room. Around 1 a.m., we woke up to the
sound of motorbikes in our premise. There was a
commotion outside and we could feel that the
house was surrounded by some 10-12 persons.
Soon, someone knocked at the door and started
screaming: “Dwizen da, open the door.” When we
did not respond they started banging on the door.
Pulen, who was still awake, came to our room and
asked my husband to open the door. I told the men
at the door that Dwizen was not at home. But they
did not relent and broke open the door. My hus-
band was much scared and he hid himself under
the bed. The gang ransacked the house and finally
traced Dwizen down to under the bed. They started
firing at him then and there. He was dead instantly.
Pulen was shot next and after that the masked left
our house only to return soon to fire at Arup. When
we were screaming for help Rajnikanta Haloi came
running and pulled out Dwizen’s body from under
the bed.

why was dwizen haloi targeted?

This was the big question and nobody seemed to

have an answer except one person—Dwizen’s wife
Bharati. According to her, her husband was killed
because she was the elder sister of ULFA leader
Raju Baruah. She says that Dwizen was killed with
9 mm pistol and after every bullet was fired a light
blinked like an indicator.
dwizen haloi 139

Many journalists met her following the murder of

her husband. But she was unaware if there was
any news published on the incident. She also
added that one day before the incident, around 7
O’clock in the evening, Dwizen had seen three-four
men of around 25 years of age at Bishnupur, a
nearby place. He had gone there to fetch tea.
These men who were in two bikes asked Dwizen if
he was Pratul Haloi, who was his younger brother.
They had informed the police about the incident,
but when the cops reached the spot the bikers had
already left.
During the investigation, the SULFA members
issued a statement to the police: “After our leader
Abinash Bordoloi was murdered, we were under
police protection for our security. We were in the
police camp for SULFAs. So there is no possibility
of our involvement in this incident.” Interestingly, all
the individual statements were written by only one
person. And the big question was: Who was
addressing Dwizen Haloi as ‘Dwizen da’ and his
wife Bharati as ‘bou’ in fluent Assamese?” This indi-
cates that the killers knew Haloi very well.

the commisison raised questions

about sulfa involvement

● Was Haloi killed because he was related to

ULFA leader Raju Barua? There was an effort to
probe this link.
● Like other murders, Dwizen and Pulen were
140 secret killings of assam

also killed early in the morning.

● The 9 mm pistol and AK47 rifles are usually
used by police and military forces.
● The vehicle used in this incident was not used
for other killings. It was a planned murder.
● The killers came to Haloi’s residence a couple
of days ago to locate the address.
● The modus operandi of this incident bears strik-
ing resemblance to other such killings and
points towards involvement of SULFA mem-
bers.
● The police did not investigate the case with
seriousness.
● The fingerprints found at the crime-spot were
not examined and the dog squad was also not
used.
● The government did not send any condolence
message to the aggrieved family and no finan-
cial assistance was provided.*29
dhaneswar rabha
sushila rabha
It was 12 at night. March 9, 1999. Dhaneswar
Rabha and his wife Sushila Rabha had little inkling
that this would be the night of catastrophe for their
family. The couple lived with two small kids in the
village Belapara under Rangjuli police station in
Goalpara district. No one could ever imagine that
this happy-go-lucky family would have enemies
who would go to the extent of plotting their murder.
But fate has its own quirky ways.
There was a shraddha (a ritual observed by the
family members on the 13th day after the death of
a person) in Rabha’s neighbourhood on March 8.
Gudhir Bantho, Dhaneshwar’s neighbour, had lost
his father Parimal Rabha. As a good neighbour,
Rabha, along with his wife, not only attended the
shraddha, but took active part in managing things.
He knew that it would be a long day and they would
come back late. So he left their kids at one of
Rabha’s brother’s house. The couple was relent-
lessly working there for the whole day. With so
many things to manage, they could return home
only around 11 at night. It was a tiring day and in no
time they were fast asleep.
Bantho’s house was just 15 metres away from
Rabha’s. He was also fast asleep after a hectic day.
144 secret killings of assam

There was hardly any sound outside, barring the

occasional bark of the village dogs. Suddenly, the
dogs started barking furiously as if to alert the vil-
lagers about some impending danger. Bantho
woke up to the noise and could hear some foot-
steps outside. May be some Army or police per-
sonnel have come to Dhaneswar’s house for rou-
tine interrogation, Bantho thought. He tried to sleep
again. Soon, he heard someone calling Dhaneswar
“Uncle, uncle”. Initially Dhaneswar did not respond.
The unknown visitor kept calling “Uncle, uncle”.
Finally, Dhaneswar woke up and opened the door.
The poor soul might have assumed that some one
was in trouble, so was calling him. Little did he real-
ize that trouble was waiting for him.
“Oh, you killed me,” that was the scream that
came out of Rabha’s house as he opened the door.
These were the last words of Dhaneswar and soon
he became quiet. Next was his wife Sushila. “What
did you do, Baba?” she screamed and fell to the
bullets.
Hearing these gunshots, Bantho and his wife
had come out of their house. They were scared, but
the call of duty as a good neighbour did not let them
sleep. But when they saw some gun-trotting people
come out of Rabha’s house, Bantho’s wife almost
dragged him inside. Once in, Bantho got restless.
He waited till 4 in the morning. Then he threw all
his caution out of the window and ran to
Dhaneswar’s house. But it was too late then. The
bullet-ridden bodies of Dhaneswar and Sushila
were lying on the floor. There was no way Bantho
could help them. The ever-helping couple did not
dhaneswar & sushila rabha 145

have anyone around to offer a drop of water in their

final moments. At 7-45 in the morning, Bantho filed
an FIR in the Rangjuli police station.

why were they killed?

Dhaneswar and Sushila were parents of ULFA

leader Manoj Rabha alias Drishti Rajkhowa, one of
the top-most ULFA leader still at large and is
believed to be in Assam. The couple was often
threatened by police and military forces—if Drishti
did not return to the mainstream, their family would
suffer terrible consequences, and so on. Rabha
and his family ignored these threats and eventually
paid the price.

who were involved?

Though the Saikia Commission did not get signifi-

cant clues to pinpoint the killers, it was obvious that
the assailants were known to the victims. Before
falling to the bullets, Sushila screamed, “What did
you do, Baba?” That she addressed the killer as
‘Baba’ proves that she knew the man.
Initial investigations pointed the finger towards
SULFA leader Bimal Rabha though he denied even
knowing any of the victims. In fact, police reports
suggest that Rangjuli police station was hand in
glove with the SULFA members. There was allega-
tion of shoddy investigation by the probing officers.
Neighbours of Rabha even claim that the police
146 secret killings of assam

was dilly-dallying about visiting the crime-spot.

role of police

According to Rohit Rabha, a local journalist, the

Rangjuli police station regularly does heavy
patrolling around the area under its jurisdiction.
Every vehicle plying in this area is thoroughly
examined. Surprisingly, on the night of Rabha’s
murder, the patrol team was taken off. Rohit had
accompanied Bantho when the latter went to file
the FIR. He informed the officer in-charge of the
police station about the movement of two-three
Maruti cars and Gypsies in the area. But the police-
men did not pay attention to his report. Before this,
Rohit had informed the police station about the
harassment inflicted by SULFA cadre like Bimal
Rabha and Roosvelt Rabha on local people. But no
action was ever taken against them. All these clear-
ly suggest that there was a nexus between the
police and SULFA.*30
Like several other cases of secret killings, the
Rabhas were also murdered at midnight. It was
quite obvious that the killers had police protection.
The absence of patrol team on the night of murder
clearly points a finger in this direction. The police
did not take help of any scientific method to con-
duct the investigation. The government did not
send any condolence message to the aggrieved
family.
What was the fault of the Rabha couple? That
their son had joined the ULFA? If that was their
dhaneswar & sushila rabha 147

fault, the parents of the secret killers would be

equally guilty. Should they also be killed the same
way? Obviously not. This is not the way to curb ter-
rorism. Killing the family members of extremists will
not solve the problem. It’s just another form of ter-
rorism only.
Bodies of two more victims of secret killings
being taken for cremation
deepak choudhury
January 8, 2000. Around 1-30 am in the night.
Village Helasha in Nalbari district. Deenabandhu
Choudhury suddenly woke up to the sound of some
footsteps outside his house.
Who could be there at this hour?
He got the impression that there were around
six-seven persons inside his premise. A sense of
danger sent shivers down his spine. Someone was
knocking at his door. But he did not respond. Soon
the visitors started banging the door. Still he did not
respond.
Meanwhile, everybody in the family—his wife
Bhadrawati Choudhury, son Deepak Choudhury
and daughter-in-law Usha Choudhury—woke up.
After a while one of the men at the door said,
“Uncle. I’m Bordoloi, please open the door.”
But the Choudhury family decided not to open
the door. Finally, the visitors broke open the door.
They first looked for Deepak. Scared, he was
standing behind his old father. The intruders threw
the father aside and hold Deepak by his collar and
dragged him to the verandah. The commotion
woke up Rimjhim, the 18-months-old daughter of
Deepak. She could barely understand what was
going to befall on her father.
152 secret killings of assam

Horrified, Deepak’s mother stood still failing to

utter a single word. Deenabandhu tried his best to
protect his son. But the old man was no match to
the raw power of the visitors. His fervent plea to
them, “please don’t kill him”, fell to deaf ears.
Usha, with Rimjhim clinging to her chest, was
trying free her husband from the clutch of the tor-
mentors. “Oh brothers, please don’t kill my hus-
band. Please don’t make me a widow,” she was
pleading.
And in this hustle-bustle Rimjhim started crying.
But such a heart-breaking scene could not move
the killers. They fired bullet after bullet on Deepak
in front of his helpless family. With their job done,
the killers left the victim’s house immediately.
Deenabandhu and his wife remained mute specta-
tors. Their son was killed right in front of their eyes.
Usha became hysteric, Rimjhim traumatized. All
they could see was Deepak’s eyes—sad and
apologetic—which wanted to say, “Please forgive
me, I could not fulfil my duties towards you.”
At 7-25 in the morning Paresh Choudhury met
Mahendra Kalita, officer-in-charge of Solmara out-
post, and filed an FIR on this gruesome murder.
Kalita registered a case (No 95) in the general diary
and reported the incident to Bipin Bihari Singh, offi-
cer-in-charge of Belshor police station. Singh regis-
tered a case (132/2000) and entrusted Kalita with
the task of investigating the murder.
Kalita set off on his job immediately. He found
five rounds of empty cartridge of AK 47 at the crime
spot which was just three-four kilometers away
from Sholmara police out post. The body was sent
deepak choudhury 153

to Nalbari Civil Hospital for post-mortem. Paresh

and Deenabandhu were questioned.

paresh choudhury

Around 1-30 am in the morning, around 20 men came

in a Maruti car and two Tata Sumos. They dragged
Deepak out of his house and killed him ignoring all
the pleas for mercy by his parents and wife.

deenabandhu choudhury

Someone among the killers called me, “Uncle I’m

Bordoloi, please open the door.” They dragged
Deepak out of his bed room and fired many shots
at him. Usha’s fervent pleas and Rimjhim’s cry
could not move the beasts.
Deenabandhu alleges:
We informed the Sholmara Police out post at 3-
39 in the morning. But police came at 8 in the morn-
ing. Soon the district commissioner and superin-
tendent of police of Nalbari district inspected the
crime spot. The killers also took away 29 tolas of
gold and Rs 11,500 cash. In fact, the police inves-
tigation found out that the killers had parked their
vehicles near a temple which was one furlong away
from Deepak’s house.
Based on the version of Deenbandhu that one
of the killers introduced him as Bordoloi, the needle
of suspicion pointed to SULFA leader Abinash
Bordoloi. The police questioned him but was let off
when he told them that he had been at the Tapan
Deka’s Nursing Home from December 7 for his
154 secret killings of assam

mother’s treatment. The probing officers never ver-

ified his statement. Besides, as the nursing home
was just 15 kilometres away from Deepak’s house,
Bordoloi could have easily travelled that distance to
commit the crime.

mahendra kalita’s version

As Bordoloi was busy with his mother in the nurs-

ing home, he could not have possibly murdered
Deepak. Besides, the local people also did not
mention anything against Bordoloi.

police role

The investigating team questioned only a few peo-

ple. This clearly gave the impression that the cops
were not serious about nabbing the culprits. They
did not examine finger prints at the crime spot. The
dog squad also was not used. Bordoloi could have
been a vital clue in this case. But he was not thor-
oughly interrogated. There were several SULFA
members in that area, but none of them were ques-
tioned. All this suggest that there were critical laps-
es on the part of the probing officers.*31

why was deepak killed?

Deepak was very popular in Helasa. He hardly had

any enemy in the village. He mingled with one and
all. His only fault was that he was ULFA leader
Shasha Choudhury’s brother. That was the time
when many such killings were carried out under
deepak choudhury 155

government patronage. The family members of

ULFA leaders were targeted specially. The killers
were SULFA members who had the backing of
police and government. The motive was to destroy
the terrorist outfit. It was assumed that such mur-
ders would put pressure on the militants to surren-
der and join the mainstream. Deepak Choudhury
fell victim to such a flawed and ghastly game plan.

summary of the murder

● Deepak was murdered because he was ULFA

leader Shasha Choudhury’s brother
● He was killed around 1-30 am at night
● The weapon used was AK-47 which is available
with the police and army. The killers were adept
at handling firearms.
● The probing officers ignored the Tata Sumo
used for the crime. The police team, which used
to patrol the area every night, was absent on
the night of the murder.
● The SULFA members in the area were not
questioned. There was no scientific investiga-
tion. Even finger prints were not examined.
● The government did not send any condolence
message to the government. No financial assis-
tance was offered to Deenabandhu
Choudhury’s family.

The Saikia Commission instructed the govern-

ment to offer Rimjhim a financial aid of Rs 5 lakh.
 A group of surrendered ULFA militants before the
Rangghar, the iconic historical monument of Assam
other cases
subarna rabha

Dhupdhara Police Station, Case No 46/98

Date of incident: 25/8/1998

Subarna Rabha used to live in a small village of

Dhupdhara in Goalpara district. He sustained his
family through agricultural activities. But destiny
had other plans for him.
The date was August 25, 1998. After the day’s
work Subarna’s family had their dinner and went to
sleep. The other villagers too were fast asleep.
Around 12.30 a.m. there was a knock on Subarna’s
door. Subarna and his wife Phuleswari Rabha
woke up to the knocks and footsteps in the court-
yard. Subarna and Phuleswari peeped fearfully
through the hole in the wall and saw in the court-
yard five to six armed men in army fatigue. Their
hearts pounded in some unknown fear. Why had
they come? As the knocks on the door continued,
Subarna and Phuleswari opened the door with fear.
Pointing firearms at them the men said ‘chalo,
chalo’ (move, move) and tried to take them away.
On Phuleswari’s refusal to go the men hurriedly
bundled Subarna onto a vehicle parked in front of
160 secret killings of assam

the house and went away. As they left they told

Phuleswari not to inform the police as they were
taking Subarna to Dhupdhara Police Station.
Hearing Phuleswari’s cries the neighbours
woke up and gathered in the courtyard of the
house. No one could figure out what had hap-
pened. Many presumed that the Army had taken
Subarna to the police station for some reason.
They somehow passed the night and in the morn-
ing Phuleswari and the villagers went to Dhupdhara
Police Station in search of her husband. The police
could not give any information about the where-
abouts of Subarna. An FIR was lodged by the fam-
ily. But as Phuleswari broke down worrying about
her husband, someone from the village brought her
the extremely tragic news, the news of tremendous
danger to the family. Subarna’s bullet-riddled body
was found on the road in Gathiapara village.
Subarna’s younger brother and some other vil-
lagers identified the body. Nirbhay Rabha, one of
Subarna’s brothers, was an ULFA member.
It was mentioned in the Saikia panel’s report
that the crime was an outcome of a conspiracy
between SULFA and the police.*32

khagen barman

Hajo Police Station, Case No: 40/2000

Date of incident: 17/3/2000

Farmer Ganesh Barman lived in Singimari village

that came under the Hajo Police Station in Kamrup
other cases 161

district. Khagen was his son. Khagen was good at

whatever he did, including lending a helping hand
to his father in the field. On March 17, 2000, at 6.30
p.m., after the day’s work, Khagen was watching
TV in the drawing room with his friend Madhav
when police officer B K Nath of Hajo Police Station
in civilian dress with 15 to 16 other men in police
uniform with their faces covered with black cloths,
came in. Immediately they asked which one of
them was Khagen Barman. As soon as Khagen
identified himself some of the men held him by the
neck and took him to the backyard. Khagen’s
father, who in the meantime saw what had hap-
pened in the drawing room, earnestly requested
the policemen not to drag his son in that manner
and instead ask him whatever they had to ask. But
instead of giving any importance to him the police-
men struck him with a pistol and locked him up in
another room. By the time Khagen’s mother Nilima
Barman came out of the kitchen, another four to
five policemen had overpowered Khagen. Although
she ran towards her son the policemen told her to
keep quiet, threatening to shoot her if she made
further noise. Khagen begged for his life from the
policemen who had by then become diabolical. A
moment later the policemen’s firearms roared.
Khagen’s body was riddled with bullets. Even after
that the policemen did not calm down. They emp-
tied a sack containing potatoes, put Khagen’s body
into it and tied the mouth of the sack with a
gamocha hung on the wall and dragging it away,
bundled it onto the Gypsy and merged into with the
silence of the night, as if nothing had happened.
162 secret killings of assam

Appearing before the Saikia Commission, the

then police officer of Hajo Police station B K Nath
said that although he went to Khagen Barman’s
house that evening along with the then
Superintendent of Police, Kamrup, B K Mishra, he
never entered the house. It was Mishra who had
gone inside and some time later he could hear gun-
fire. Mishra told the inquiry panel that on March 17,
2000 during his inspection of Hajo police station, offi-
cer Nath had led a police team to Khagen’s house
upon hearing about an ULFA meeting going on there,
and Khagen was killed in the ensuing encounter with
the police team. The Saikia panel refrained from
blaming any party in this tragic incident.*33

keshab konwar

Golaghat PS, Case No: 230/99

Date of incident: 01/09/1999

The time was 9:15 pm. The date September 1,

1999. Keshab Konwar of Golaghat was at home.
Suddenly, Keshab’s wife Dipti Konwar heard a
vehicle screeching to a halt at the gate. A short
while later they heard a heavy knock at the door
and someone shouting in Hindi to open the door:
“Darwaja kholo, hum log camp se aaye hain.”
(Open the door. We have come from the camp).
Although he had faced such situations because he
and his younger brother were human rights
activists, Keshab opened the door after some initial
reluctance. Dipti too stood behind him holding a
other cases 163

lamp in her hand. They saw two armed masked

men in civilian dress. “Saheb gadi mein hain, tumko
bulaya hai,” (Sir is in the car. He has called for you)
they said and pulled Keshab towards the Gypsy
although he was wearing just his lungi. Dipti too fol-
lowed them with the lamp in her hand. The men
bundled Keshab onto the Gypsy and vanished. The
next day Golaghat Police informed Dipti that
Keshab’s bullet-riddled body was lying at Titabar
Police Outpost. Dipti scurried to Titabar. Her need
for vermilion was over forever. The body of Keshab,
who embraced death with 7/8 AK-47 bullets, was
found beside the Kakadunga bridge on Dhodar Ali
in Jorhat district. According to local people, on
September 1, at 10:30 p.m. they had heard the
sound of several rounds of gunfire and the terrify-
ing scream of someone about to die. Keshab’s
younger brother Arup Konwar had been associated
with the ULFA since 1989, for which Keshab’s fam-
ily too had to face police harassment from time to
time. There were widespread allegations that just
because he was the kin of an ULFA member
Keshab had to embrace a premature death.
After different witness accounts and circum-
stantial analysis, the Saikia panel in its report said
that jawans of 16 IR Battalion and SULFA members
from the Golaghat and Bogorijeng camps who had
come in the vehicles that day, were to blame direct-
ly for the incident. On the other hand, the panel
also held the Golaghat district police administration
and the then officer in-charge of Golaghat Police
Station Nabin Chandra Gogoi indirectly responsible
for the incident.*34
164 secret killings of assam

mahesh nath

Goalpara Police Station, Case No 1/99

Date of incident: 1/1/99

Mahesh Nath hailed from Agiya in Goalpara district.

He had spent five years in jail after being caught by
the army for his alleged links with the ULFA and in
connection with a bomb blast. Later on, of course,
Mahesh took to teaching and led a normal life.
Apart from taking part in various social activities he
was also associated with the Manab Adhikar
Sangram Samiti (MASS), a human rights body.
On January 1, 1999, the first day of a new year,
Mahesh along with two friends Bhagirath Nath from
Agiya and Nirmal Biswas from Bapujinagar,
Goalpara went to his younger sister Panchami’s
place in Paikan on a bicycle. On their way back
home as they reached Muslimpara, they noticed an
Ambassador car and a Maruti Gypsy coming along
NH-37 from the direction of Goalpara. After coming
near the bicycles the vehicles stopped and some
occupants got down and called out for Mahesh’s
name. They forced Mahesh into one of the vehicles
and drove away to Laokhowa in Krishnai. In the
direction towards which Mahesh was taken away
was a SULFA camp. The kidnappers’ consisted of
five to six men, each armed with a firearm. For the
whole day, Mahesh remained untraced. An FIR
was lodged with Krishnai Police Outpost. Mahesh’s
family kept wondering who could kidnapped the
former student leader and why. The same question
nagged many others.
other cases 165

The next day on January 2, news came from

Agiya Police Outpost that a body had been found at
the Krishnai Outpost. Mahesh’s uncle and a few
others identified the body. It was Mahesh. The
Saikia panel mentioned that SULFA men were
involved in the incident.*35

jatin phukan, nirmal konwar

Kakatibari Police Station,

Case No 25/99
Date of incident: 24/8/1999

The house of Akan Gogoi of Bogibeel village under

Mahmora area in Sivasager district normally
remained crowded with young men of the locality.
The reason was the carom board. You could
always see the boys engrossed in the game. Even
on August 24, 1999 there was no exception to this
activity. The energetic youths were busy playing
carom. Suddenly at 11 o’ clock, a group of 20 to 25
armed masked men in civilian clothes raided
Gogoi’s house shouting, “catch them, catch them.”
Confronting the armed men who were there with an
intent to kill, the youths began running here and
there. But the killers who had seemingly gone mad
with bestiality neither raised any questions nor
gave any chance to the boys to escape and
opened indiscriminate fire on them. As a result
Nirmal Konwar from Nemuguri Jakhalating
Konwargaon and Jatin Phukan from Kukilachuk vil-
lage under Moran Police Station received several
166 secret killings of assam

bullet injuries and closed their eyes forever in the

muddy paddy field some 1,200 feet away from
Gogoi’s house. Why the secret killers killed Nirmal
Konwar and Jatin, a first year student of science from
the Gargaon College who had given up his studies
and was learning driving, remained a mystery.
According to statements made by the local peo-
ple before the inquiry panel, there was no one in
police uniform in the 20 to 25-member gang.
Although the police said the youths were killed
because of their ULFA links, they could produce no
proof to substantiate their claim. After an analysis
of all documents related to the killings, eye-witness
accounts and circumstantial evidences, the inquiry
panel in its report held SULFA leaders Kushal Duori
alias Jayanta Hazarika, Mridul Phukan alias Samar
Kakati, Sivasagar district police administration and
the then officer in-charge of Kakatibari Police
Station directly responsible for the cold-blooded
killing of the two youths.

tapan das

Goalpara Police Station, Case No 287/99

Date of incident: 28/12/1998

It was around 10.45 p.m. on December 28, 1998.

There was no human or vehicular activity on the
road on that wintry night. An Ambassador and a
Maruti car came and stopped in front of the gate of
Sudhir Chandra Das’ house in Chandariya village
in Goalpara district. The family had just retired for
other cases 167

the day after dinner. The occupants of the two vehi-

cles came and knocked at the door of the house
and called out for his son Tapan. The family could
not recognise the voices of the visitors and were
surprised at someone looking for Tapan so late in
the night. But as the men repeatedly called out
Tapan’s name, he opened the door and came out.
Neither he nor his family could imagine what fate
waited for him outside.
As Tapan approached the gate, some unknown
apprehension made him shudder. When the visi-
tors tried to take him away he refused to go and
turned back towards the house. But instantly bul-
lets from the assailants’ guns pierced Tapan’s body.
As a blood-soaked Tapan slumped to the ground
beside the gate, the killers hurriedly abandoned the
spot. There was utter confusion in Tapan’s family. A
member of the family was shot dead right in front of
the house. No one could console the grief-stricken
family. The family informed the police that the occu-
pants of the two vehicles were SULFA members
Jagannath Rabha alias Sira, Roosevelt Rabha,
Bipul Rabha, Jayanta Rabha alias Topa, Munna
Sarma, Dhanpati Medhi and Ratna Das. These
SULFA men were then staying in the camp at
Bapujinagar in Goalpara. Tapan’s younger sister
Minoti Das said she had seen these SULFA mem-
bers killing her brother and leaving the place.*36
The Saikia panel’s report mentioned that the
killing was an outcome of a conspiracy and secret
understanding between the police and SULFA.
Moreover, it was mentioned that SULFA men
Roosevelt Rabha, Jagannath Sangma, Rinku
168 secret killings of assam

Choudhury, Dhanpati Medhi, Munna Sarma,

Jayanta Rabha et al., were involved in the killing.

jugal phukan

Kakatibari Police Outpost, Case No 26/99

Date of incident: 10/9/1999

On September 10, 1999, two youths from Mahmora

came panting and informed Jugal Phukan’s brother
Homen Phukan, who lived in Akhoiya village, that
someone had killed Jugal. A confused Homen ran
to the Sepon police station to inquire about his
elder brother. But the police officials expressed
ignorance about the matter and asked him to con-
tact the Sivasagar Sadar station. At Sivasagar,
Police Station, Homen was told that Jugal’s body
had been kept for identification at the Sivasagar
Civil Hospital situated at Joysagar. Even after
Homen identified the body he was not allowed to
take it away by the hospital authorities. It was only
the next day that Jugal’s father received the body
after post mortem.
Jugal had on the previous day gone to the resi-
dence of Phulomoni Gogoi of Mahmora, who was
Jugal’s niece. He had gone there and asked for a
glass of water. After giving him water Phulmoni
asked him to take a seat. Just as she was about to
enter the bathroom, 20 to 25 masked and armed
men, including army and police personnel in civilian
clothes arrived on the spot. The intruders started
shouting ‘catch him’ and went after Jugal. At the
other cases 169

sight of these armed men, a confused Jugal tried to

escape through the back door. The men, who were
mad to kill Jugal, went after him. Unable to cross
over the bamboo fence in the backyard of the
house, Jugal had to finally stop there. He raised his
hands in the air. But the men showed no mercy on
him. With coarse sounds a shower of bullets
sprouted from AK-47 rifles and hit Jugal’s body. He
became lifeless. With bullet injuries on the chest,
upper neck, flesh and elbow of the right hand, the
youth closed his eyes forever.
After studying all documents related to the
killing and listening to witnesses, the Saikia panel
held SULFA men Kushal Duwori alias Jayanta
Hazarika and Mridul Phukan alias Samar Kakati,
the Sivasagar district police administration and the
then officer in-charge of Kakatibari responsible for
the incident. The Saikia panel said that although
the police tried to project Jugal as an ULFA mem-
ber, there was no proof in that direction. No
encounter had taken place and it was a cold-blood-
ed, pre-planned murder. The Commission clearly
stated that even if Jugal was involved in certain
killings, the police, Army and masked men had no
right to kill him.*37

lakheswar rabha

Dispur Police Station, Case No 675/99

Date of incident: 7/7/1998

Thirty-six-year-old Lakheswar Rabha worked in the

170 secret killings of assam

Department of Statistics in the Government of

Assam’s Agriculture Department. He was from
Gathiyapara village that came under the
Dhupdhara police station in Goalpara district. A for-
mer member of the ULFA, he had surrendered at a
ceremony at Guwahati Circuit House in 1992 and
carefully preserved the ‘SULFA certificate’ with the
signatures of the then Deputy Commissioner and
the Superintendent of Police of the Kamrup district.
After that he had not kept any contact with either
the ULFA or the SULFA. He devotedly concentrat-
ed on his job and stayed at a rented house at Jatiya
with his elder son Digbijoy Rabha who studied at
the Jatiya High School, and his younger brother
Troilakya. Lakheswar’s wife Seuti stayed with their
other two children in their house at Gathiyapara.
Normally during the summer holidays Digbijoy
used to go and stay with his mother. This year too
he went to Gathiyapara. So Lakheswar too had
gone to the village. In July, one of his younger
brothers Tikhona Rabha became seriously ill and
had to be admitted to the Greenland Nursing Home
at Azara near Guwahati. Lakheswar returned to his
residence in Jatiya to look after his ailing brother.
On July 7, 1999 Lakheswar took dinner for his
brother and then left the nursing home. After that his
dead body was found lying on the floor of the Dispur
police station. Nobody knew how he was killed.
Strangely, Sub-inspector A.R. Barlaskar of the
Dispur police station filed an FIR on July 7 at 1.45
in the night. ULFA member Lakheswar Rabha fired
upon a police patrol party at Sonaighuli in
Kahilipara area and was injured when the police
other cases 171

personnel returned fired, it said. He later suc-

cumbed to his injuries at the Guwahati Medical
College. Dispur Police washed its hands off the
matter by registering a case in this connection.
On the other hand, a post-mortem report said
that Lakheswar was shot from very close quarters
and one bullet pierced his skull and brain, while
another passed through his chest and heart
because of which he died instantaneously.
On the basis of statements made by the wit-
nesses and certain proofs, the Saikia panel men-
tioned in its report that Lakheswar Rabha’s death
was not an outcome of any encounter, but a case
of pre-planned cold-blooded murder. It has been
mentioned in the report that the then police officer
of Dispur Zone, other police personnel, top officials
of the City Police and SULFA members of Dudhnoi
area were directly and indirectly responsible for
Lakheswar’s death.*38

mahendra rai

Rongjuli Police Station, Case No 41/99

Date of incident: 15/9/1999

Mahendra Rai of Rongjuli was engaged in petty

contract jobs. In September, he was busy in the
contract job that he had secured at Burhaburhi rail-
way station in Goalpara district. Leading a simple
life, he would leave home every morning after hav-
ing his meal prepared by his mother to oversee the
ongoing work and return home around seven in the
172 secret killings of assam

evening. On September 15, 1999 too his mother

Binapani served him food and then bade him good-
bye as usual. Mahendra used to do contract jobs
jointly with Soneswar Rabha, who belonged to a
nearby village. On that day, while leaving for his
work, he had taken along with him a labourer too.
His mother never knew that Mahendra would bid
her bye forever. He did not return from work that
evening. Despite an extensive search he remained
untraced. The labourer who had accompanied
Mahendra said that after leaving him at the market
he had seen Mahendra driving away in a Maruti car
from Rongjuli Hospital. The labourer had seen the
vehicle speeding towards Dudhnoi. Mahendra’s
mother lodged an FIR with Rongjuli Police Station.
On September 18 the rural folk of Dumni area
found a body soaked in blood. The body was later
identified as that of Mahendra. One of Mahendra’s
brothers Montu was an ULFA member. Army and
police used to frequently visit Montu’s house as
they wanted him to surrender.
The Saikia panel’s report held SULFA members
staying in the then Dudhnoi camp responsible for
the murder and also mentioned deep-rooted con-
spiracy between the police and the SULFA.*39

dinesh chandra rai

Goalpara Police Station, Case No 231/99

Date of incident: 24/12/1999

Dinesh used to live with his elder brother Dhiren in

other cases 173

Agiya. He was unmarried. Their younger brother

Moni too lived with them. They were terrified to
hear about the secret killings being carried out at
different places. Truly, a frightening situation pre-
vailed all over the state. The brothers had even
decided not to open the door if someone knocked
at night. But fate played a cruel joke on them.
On December 23, 1999 around 1 in the night,
the three brothers were terrified by the knocks on
their door by about three men. The visitors were
heard talking in a local dialect. As the knocking con-
tinued for about half an hour, Dinesh opened the
door and went out. That proved to be ominous for
Dinesh and the family. Those who were inside
heard only gunfires, but they could have never
imagined that it would be Dinesh who will be killed.
Hearing the gunshots the villagers came out, but
before they could reach Dinesh’s house, the killers
had made a good escape. It may be mentioned that
Jayanta, one of the sons of Dinesh’s elder brother
Dhiren Roy, was an ULFA member and there was
pressure on the family from various quarters to
make him surrender.
The Saikia panel report said that some SULFA
men living in the camp who had good relations with
the police were involved in the killing too.*40

hemen chandra kalita

Paltanbazar Police Station, Case No 307/99

Date of incident: 24/8/1999
174 secret killings of assam

Lohit Chandra Kalita lived at Birubari in Guwahati.

After retiring from his service, he opened a PCO
both to pass his time and also as a means of
income. His elder son Hemen Chandra Kalita too
was into this business. He ran a tent house in front
of the house.
On August 24, 1999 the entire family had retired
for the day after dinner. Just before 1 in the night,
Hemen completed his work, had his food and went
to bed. Soon thereafter, someone started calling
out his name loudly from the bamboo fence out-
side. Lohit Kalita woke up after hearing the voice.
Wondering who it could be so late in the night; Lohit
did not let his son go out and instead opened the
front door himself and peeped outside. He could
see a group of men, seemingly armed, standing on
the outer side of the bamboo fence. Kalita shut the
door in terror. Secret killings had then stalked the
entire state of Assam. There was no knowing when
someone would be killed or abducted. Finding the
door closed, the armed men went to the back of the
compound, broke down the bamboo fence and the
back door of the house and entered the drawing
room. They told Lohit to call his son Hemen, and
told him that they wanted to discuss something with
him. But he could not recognise the armed men. He
could not ascertain whether they were policemen
or members of SULFA or ULFA. They talked among
themselves for about five minutes and then one of
them asked for the cupboard key and went to the
next room. Hurriedly the youth pocketed the orna-
ments of Lohit’s wife and cash. One of his accom-
plices then cried out, “Hey, have you been sent to
other cases 175

fetch someone or valuables?” In the meantime,

Hemen woke up and entered the drawing room. As
the armed youth too moved away from the cup-
board and went to the drawing room, Lohit followed
him. But the men pushed him back and closed the
drawing room door. Finding no other way out Lohit
tried to enter the drawing room from outside, but
the men had in the meantime taken Hemen away
towards the gate. Lohit earnestly requested them to
release his son as he suffered from asthma. The
armed men warned Lohit not to call anyone. The
men vanished in the darkness with Hemen as a
captive. Since then, there has been no trace of
Hemen, dead or alive.
After studying witness accounts and circum-
stantial evidences, the Saikia panel mentioned in
its report that the killing was an outcome of a secret
understanding between the SULFA and police. The
then top officials of Guwahati City Police and the
officers-in-charge of Paltanbazar and Birubari
police stations were held directly or indirectly
responsible for abetting the killers.

sapan patgiri

Goalpara Police Station, Case No 79/99

Date of incident: 11/5/1999

On May 11, 1999, as usual, around 7 p.m. a youth

named Sapan Patgiri went to the Durga Mandir
market in Baladmari for some shopping. It was a
place from where the family shopped usually.
176 secret killings of assam

Suddenly, some armed men forced Sapan into a

Maruti Van and quickly disappeared from the
scene. According to the people present at the spot,
the men were armed with weapons like AK-47. And
because they were armed nobody could dare to
save Sapan. The incident caused a hue and cry in
the area. Someone informed Sapan’s family. Along
with the other members of his family, Sapan’s moth-
er Renu Patgiri went to the scene of the crime. A
search began all around. No one had any clue
about Sapan’s abduction. The family plunged into a
deep unknown fear. An FIR was lodged in the police
station. People in the market informed Sapan’s
uncle Siddhi Patgiri that the occupants of the Maruti
Van included Goalpara-based SULFA members
Roosevelt Rabha, Jagannath Sangma, Bipul
Rabha, Dhanpati Medhi and Jayanta Rabha. Siddhi
Patgiri even informed the police about it. On May
12, Sapan’s body was found under a culvert in
Salmara village that came under the Dudhnoi police
station. His body bore clear marks of brutal torture.
Sapan’s uncle Siddhinath Patgiri was actively asso-
ciated with the Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti.
It was mentioned in the Saikia panel report that
SULFA men carried out the killing with direct and
indirect cooperation and encouragement from the
police administration.*41

lakhan rabha

Goalpara Police Station, Case No 76/2000

Date of incident: 10/12/2000
other cases 177

Who could have ever imagined that December 10,

2000 would be the most fateful day for Lakhan
Rabha and his family? That day around 11 p.m.,
after the family had retired for the day after the
evening meal, there were knocks on the door.
Lakhan’s uncle Narpati Rabha held the torch in his
hand. He opened the door to find 10 to 12 young
men, with their faces covered with black clothes.
The youths entered the house and after checking
all the inmates sleeping in different rooms, found
Lakhan and took him away almost forcibly to guide
them to somebody’s house. They assured the fam-
ily that Lakhan would be able to return home after
leading them to the place they were seeking. The
family expected him to return. They kept awake the
whole night, but Lakhan did not return. No one
brought any news about him either. In the morning
the family started looking for him, when two men
from Belpara came and informed them that a dead
body was lying on the road at Belpara. Lakhan’s
brother Sankardhar went to the spot with some of
the villagers and saw that the body was that of his
brother. The family came to know later that Lakhan
was killed because one of his brothers Shatrughna
Rabha was an ULFA member.
Besides accusing Goalpara-based SULFA
members to be involvement in the crime, the Saikia
panel also criticised the role played by the police
administration in the matter.
178 secret killings of assam

nripen duarah and deep bora

Simaluguri Police Station,

Case No 107, 108/98
Date of incident: 6/10/1998

On October 6, 1998 some unknown men abducted

Nripen Duarah form Khonamukh Mazgaon in
Sivasagar district from Mazgaon Chapori Chuba
area. Although Nripen’s family informed the
Gaurisagar police station about the matter, it made
no inquiries then. The next day, some villagers
brought the news that two dead bodies had been
recovered in Geleky. Nripen’s family came to know
that the bodies had in the meantime been sent to
Sivasagar Civil Hospital for post mortem. Later the
family identified one of the bodies as that of Nripen.
The neck bore deep cut marks made with sharp
weapons. The body was found in Lakuwa Chariali.
On the other hand, the other body found in
Salapathar was identified as that of Deep Bora, son
of Jogeswar Bora of No 1 Hatimora Sivasagaria vil-
lage (North Lakhimpur).
The Saikia panel report mentioned that SULFA
member Jayanta Hazarika alias Kushal Duori, who
was under the protection of the Sivasagar district
police, and some other SULFA men under him
were directly and indirectly involved in the killing of
the two youths.*43
other cases 179

syed abdul munim and md abidur rahman

Teok Police Station,

Case No 30/2000
Date of incident: 25/3/2000

This is the incident of the Kakajan Arandhara vil-

lage in Jorhat district. On the night of March 25,
2000 terror descended on two families of this vil-
lage. Syed Abdul Munim was involved in the iron
and steel business. The small family pulled on well
with the business. About four days prior to March
25, SULFA member Pavan Lahan from Kakajan
had come to Abdul’s house and threatened him
over some matter. On the night of March 25 Abdul
retired for the day with his wife and son. As the
night grew the family woke up to the sound of vehi-
cles in front of the house and heavy knocks on the
door. As Abdul’s wife Sabila switched on the light
on the verandah, about 10 to 12 masked men
dressed in army and police uniform and civilian
dresses ordered in rough voices for the light to be
switched off. After Abdul and Sabila came out, the
armed men woke up the other members of the fam-
ily and immobilised them by hitting them with the
AK-47 rifles and guns.
Sabila broke down crying and fell at the feet of
a Hindi-speaking man who looked like the leader.
But the cruel-hearted armed men rampaged the
entire house. They had in the meantime surround-
ed Abdul. Sabila saw that apart from those who
entered the house there were more men standing
in the courtyard with their faces and bodies cov-
180 secret killings of assam

ered. “You must accompany us,” they said to Abdul.

Abdul ran his hand over his son’s head, “Son, this
is our last meeting, I am leaving,” he said and went
out with the armed men. A distraught Sabila went
after them and saw Abdul getting onto a
Shaktiman-type army vehicle parked a little dis-
tance away. Abdul never returned to share his joys
and sorrows with Sabila.
Nazir Mohammad’s house too was in Kakajan
Arandhara village. On the night of March 25 the
entire family was fast asleep. Around 2.45 a.m. 15
to 20 men in army uniform turned up at the house.
Nazir woke up and opened the door himself. Two
army men and a few others in civilian dresses with
his face covered enquired in Hindi about the mem-
bers of the family. They then woke up 24-year-old
Abidur who was sleeping in a room towards the
verandah and pulled him by the hand towards a
vehicle parked in front of the gate. As they did so
they bundled the other members of the family into
the house and latched the door from outside. Nazir
forced open the door and saw that the killers had
bundled Abidur into a jeep and a small army vehi-
cle and driven away fast towards the east. Abidur
never returned home.
After analysing accounts of various witnesses
the Saikia panel mentioned that SULFA men Jatin
Gogoi from Bokakhat, Pranab Lahan from Kakajan
and a policeman (Abdul’s wife Sabila recognised
him after the black cloth with which he had covered
his face, accidentally fell off) of Lahdoigarh Police
Outpost were directly or indirectly involved in the
abduction and killing incidents. Moreover, Teok
other cases 181

police station and Jorhat police administration were

charged with abetting the killers.*44

manik chandra kalita

Nalbari Police Station, Case No 355/99

Date of incident: 3/9/2000

Manik Kalita’s saw mill was situated towards the

south of the National Highway to the west of
Chakra Kalita’s petrol depot in Kalakuchi
(Narayanpur) in Nalbari district. Manik Kalita was
also a first class contractor with the PWD of the
Assam Government. September 3, 2000 was a
Sunday. Around 2 p.m. after lunch he left for
Guwahati along with his contractor-friend Tapan
Deka. After finishing his work there, he returned to
Nalbari and entered his saw mill at 8.30 p.m. Soon
he saw two men, one dressed in khaki and the
other in civilian dress approaching him. They point-
ed towards a white Tata Sumo and said, “Sir wants
to see you.” Without giving the matter a second
thought Kalita went near the vehicle, when sud-
denly the men bundled him into the car and fled
away. Kalita has remained untraceable ever since.
A few days after his abduction a phone call was
made from Shillong to the family demanding Rs 5
lakh and another call from Tamulpur asking for Rs
3 lakh, which turned out to be hoax calls.
On the basis of accounts of various witnesses,
the Saikia panel mentioned the direct or indirect
involvement of SULFA member Dibakar Deka,
182 secret killings of assam

policemen from Nalbari police camp and other

SULFA members from Guwahati in Kalita’s abduc-
tion and killing. Moreover, pointing to the SULFA-
police nexus, the panel held responsible the then
Nalbari police administration, the then officer in-
charge of Nalbari Police Station and the investigat-
ing officer for the incident. *45

parameswar das

Hajo Police Station, Case No 107/99

Palashbari Police Station, Case No 93/99
Date of incident: 23/6/1999

On June 22, 1999 at midnight there were knocks

on the doors of Parameswar Das of Kulhati in Hajo
in Kamrup district. The village had fallen silent by
then. Upon hearing the knocks, Parameswar and
his wife Malati were startled. Someone called from
outside, “Das da (elder brother), we have come
from the hills, help us.” Parameswar opened the
door fearfully. Standing outside were 10 to 12 men
with their faces covered in black clothes.
Parameswar and Malati became speechless.
Within moments the men took Parameswar away
at gun-point. There was utter confusion in the fam-
ily. On June 24, Parameswar’s headless body was
discovered beside the gate of Dakhala embank-
ment on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra. A
little downstream, his head was found stuck to a
rock on the riverbank. On the body could be found
marks of brutal torture by sharp weapons. An inno-
other cases 183

cent man was taken away from his sleep and

beheaded. At the spot where Parameswar’s body
was found, the local people had seen two Gypsies
with many occupants. It may be mentioned that the
police had once imprisoned Parameswar for having
links with the ULFA. After that Parameswar got
married and led a simple life, doing farming for a
living.
Although the Saikia panel held the then officer
in-charge of the Hajo police station Ajmal Ali and
MLA Nurul Hssain indirectly responsible for the
murder, it was not clear who was directly involved
in it.*46

hiren deka

Sarupathar Police Station, Case No 230/99

Date of incident: 18/8/1999

Hiren Deka made his living by running a small shop

at Sarupathar Block Tiniali. The date was August
19, 1999. Four men who came in a black Maruti
Gypsy enquired about his elder brother Mukut
Deka. Mukut Deka was a SULFA leader familiar to
all in the locality. He was earlier associated with the
ULFA’s publicity wing. It was only about two years
after the death of his brother that he surrendered
before the then Governor and Chief Minister. He
revealed that before surrendering security person-
nel used to come frequently to his house and put
pressure on his family to make him surrender. But
since the family had no contact number they could
184 secret killings of assam

not contact him. Although he returned to the main-

stream it was already too late. Mukut’s brother
Hiren had too pay the price through his life.
The killers had forcibly taken Hiren away. Since
then he remained untraceable. The Saikia panel
report held SULFA men of Golaghat and
Bogorijeng directly responsible and the district
police administration indirectly responsible for the
incident.*47

diganta das

Dimow Police Station, Case No 121/98

Date of incident: 7/11/1998

Diganta belonged to a simple family of Dimow in

Upper Assam. He eked out his living trading in fish.
He would catch fish in the fishery, sell them and run
his family with whatever profit he made. Despite the
family suffering from poverty, his wife Arati and four
children lived happily. An enterprising youth of the
area, Diganta was also an active member of the
Dimow Min Samabay Samiti (Fish Cooperative
Society). But on November 7, 1998, dreams of the
family were shattered. No one had ever imagined
that Diganta would be killed on the bank of the fish-
ery where he used to go for fishing usually. Initially
someone informed Arati that some people had slain
someone towards the fishery, but when she came
to know that the victim was her husband she was
shell-shocked. A group of 8 to 9 men who had
come in a jeep had killed Diganta.
other cases 185

It was mentioned in the Saikia panel report that

some SULFA members of the district led by
Jayanta Hazarika alias Kushal Duori who was
under the protection of Sivasagar police, were
directly or indirectly involved in the killing. But the
report also mentioned that Duori had denied the
charges in his statement before the
Commission.*48

bimalendu bhakat

Dudhnoi Police Station, Case No 42/99

Date of incident: 10/5/1999

May 10, 1999. The was dusk. Beside National

Highway 37 that passed through Dudhnoi town in
Goalpara district, just in front of Dudhnoi High
School, was the furniture shop owned by
Hemendranath Bhakat. His younger brother
Bimalendu Bhakat too used to help him out in the
shop. That day, as usual, Bimalendu was in the
shop. Suddenly, two armed miscreants came in a
Maruti Van without a number plate and forced him
into the vehicle. They immediately drove away
towards Guwahati. It was then 7.30 p.m. None of
the employees of the shop were present at time
because they all had gone out to a stall nearby to
have tea. Bimalendu was alone in the shop. As he
was being taken away in the vehicle without head-
lights, he offered resistance with all his might. Since
that day no one has ever seen Bimalendu again.
After analysing the accounts of all witness and
186 secret killings of assam

the proofs available, the Saikia panel concluded

that SULFA members Roosevelt Rabha, Jayanta
Rabha alias Tapa, Jagannath Sangma alias Sira,
Anil Saikia, the then officer in-charge of Dudhnoi
Police Station and the district police administration
were directly or indirectly involved in the abduction
and killing of Bimalendu.*49

khagen das

Nalbari Police Station, Case No 175/99

Date of incident: 18/6/1999

This incident happened on June 18, 1999. Khagen,

son of late Upen Das of Khudra Chenikuchi village
in Nalbari district, went to Post Office Chowk at
4:20 in the afternoon. His intention was to inquire
about the return of his younger brother and sister
from Patna where they had gone for treatment. He
also wanted to inquire about the progress of the
treatment. After talking to his siblings on the phone
Khagen felt reassured and walked back home. He
never knew that destiny would take him away to
such a place from where he would never be able to
return to his beloved family. He was nearing home
when suddenly a Maruti Gypsy at a high speed
screeched to a halt beside him. Immediately a few
armed masked men got down and overpowered
Khagen. They forced him into the rear of the Gypsy
and left the place in a hurry. Before he could realise
what was happening, his hands were tied up and
he was blindfolded. On their way the secret killers
other cases 187

also kidnapped another youth named Ajay

Talukdar. The rest of the story remained a heart-
rending memory for Khagen’s family. He was never
traced. The other abducted youth Ajay Talukdar
who was confined in the Usha Court in Guwahati,
somehow managed to escape due to the careless-
ness of his captors.*50
On the basis of accounts of different eye wit-
nesses and the proofs presented, the Saikia panel
held SULFA leader Dibakar Deka, who stayed in
Nalbari police headquarters, and other SULFA men
as well as SULFA members based at the Usha
Court in Guwahati directly or indirectly responsible
for the abduction and murder of Khagen Das.
Moreover, the then officer-in-charge of Nalbari
Police Station, the Home Minister and the district
police administration had assisted the killers, the
panel mentioned.

pratap kalita

Rangiya Police Station, Case No 273/2000

Date of incident: 3/12/2000

Pratap Kalita of Rangiya was a retired railway

employee. On December 2, 2000 in the afternoon
the officer-in-charge of the Rangiya police station,
the then SDPO and the then Kamrup
Superintendent of Police L R Bishnoi went to
Kalita’s house. Without raising any questions they
started beating Kalita. On being asked the reason
for being beaten, the officials rebuked him and
188 secret killings of assam

said, “Bring back your ULFA son Khagen. If you

cannot hand him over to us then we will wipe out
your entire family.” After assaulting Kalita and terri-
fying his family, the police officials threatened to kill
Kalita if he fails to hand over his son to them within
24 hours. That day around midnight a team of 15 to
20 armed policemen with their faces covered,
came to his house and took him away. The fervent
pleas of the other members of the family could not
melt their hearts. Early next morning Kalita’s wife
Bimala Kalita scurried to the Rangiya police station
to inquire about her husband. But she did not find
him there. As she prepared to return home deject-
ed around 8 a.m., a dead body lying on the road-
side along the National Highway 31 was brought to
the police station. Bimala removed the cover from
the body to discover that the body was of her hus-
band’s. The body bore two bullet injuries. The
police had killed him in a completely pre-planned
manner.*51
On the basis of the accounts of various wit-
nesses the Saikia panel held the policemen and
SULFA members who had gone to Pratap Kalita’s
house that night, the Kamrup district police admin-
istration, the then Rangiya SDPO and the officer in-
charge of the Rangiya police station directly or indi-
rectly responsible for the incident.

amrit bhuyan

Namti Police Station, Case No 646/99

Date of incident: 7/7/1999
other cases 189

The death of Amrit Bhuyan of Kalugaon-Gayangaon

that came under the Joysagar Police Outpost in
Sivasagar district had not taken place in any seclud-
ed spot. He was the youngest of the four sons of
Phulmai Bora. A brilliant student, Amrit was an ULFA
member and worked actively in the area. On July 8,
1999 news came to Amrit’s elder brother Apurba in
Gayangaon that Amrit’s body had been foumd at the
Namti police station. Apurba could see that his
brother had been beaten to death, with his hands,
feet and ribs broken. That day itself news had
spread through the newspapers that the villagers of
Kukurasuwagaon, 13 kilometres from Gayangaon,
had beaten Amrit to death. Overcoming many obsta-
cles Apurba retrieved Amrit’s body and brought it
home. Amrit’s last rites were performed in the village
cremation ground. Before the funeral pyre had
burned out, several people from Kukurasuwagaon
came and informed Amrit’s family that the news
appearing in the newspapers was totally false. No
one from their village had killed Amrit. In fact, he
was brutally tortured and killed after being tied to a
post in the cowshed of Elementary Education Officer
Lalit Chandra Dutta of Kheluakhanda,
Kukurasuwagaon by Dutta’s younger brother,
SULFA member Parama Dutta with the help of other
SULFA members. Later, the disfigured body of Amrit
was recovered from a paddy field some distance
away from Lalit Dutta’s house. Although a case was
registered at the Namti police station, the police
could never track down the killers and punish them.
Instead, the police absolved itself of all responsibili-
ty by registering Amrit’s name as a dacoit.
190 secret killings of assam

After studying all relevant points and documents

the Saikia panel rejected the false case registered
in respect of Amrit’s murder and mentioned that
SULFA men Lalit Chandra Dutta, Parama Dutta,
Amulya Dutta, Dipak Dutta and others were direct-
ly or indirectly involved in the killing of Amrit
Phukan. The then officer-in-charge of Namti PS,
Pradip Kumar Dutta, and the Sivasagar
Superintendent of Police along with the police
administration were also indicted in the case. *52

bijit dutta, hemanta gogoi, jogeswar

gogoi and umesh das

Haluwating Police Outpost, Case No 51/98

Date of incident: 23/9/1998

The people of the area had woken up to the chirp-

ing of birds that day. The womenfolk set free the
domestic fowl from their cages. The newly married
daughters-in-law got busy sweeping the floors. The
cowherds led the cattle to graze in the fields. As
usual a cowherd named Gandhiram Koiri led the
cattle for grazing the field early in the morning. But
that day he came across a ghastly sight. In a small
roadside ditch lay four dead bodies soaked in
blood. Petrified, he left the cattle where they were
and ran back home screaming. He gave the news
to Ramswami Pandav, watchman of the tea gar-
den. It was March 23, 1998. The incident took place
at Tiphuk Tea Estate. After hearing it from
Gandhiram, Pandav informed the tea garden man-
ager A M Choudhury. Choudhury in turn told the
other cases 191

secretary of the village defence party Moina Orang.

Orang went to the spot immediately. He saw the
four bullet-riddled bodies lying in a ditch of the tea
garden. One of the deceased was about 25 years
of age, another about 28, a third was 20 and the
fourth one was about 30-year old. Orang initially
informed Haluwating Police Outpost. Besides, the
tea garden manager Choudhury too had gone to
the police outpost.
Immediately, the officer-in-charge of the outpost
Phuleswar Gogoi arrived at the spot. The bodies
were retrieved from the spot. Later, with the help of
relatives the bodies were identified as those of
Hemanta Gogoi alias Bijit Saikia, Jogeswar Gogoi
alias Jibon Mohan, Umesh Das alias Umesh
Hazarika and Bijit Dutta alias Bedanta Shyam
Saikia.
As mentioned in the Saikia panel report, Bijit
Dutta, Hemanta Gogoi, Jogeswar Gogoi and
Umesh Das were killed simply because they were
members of ULFA militants’ families. It has been
mentioned in the report that SULFA men were
involved in the crime.*53
(This chapter has been compiled and prepared
by Biman Arandhara)
Police trying to stop an angry demonstration
against secret killings

Relatives mourning the death of a secret

killing victim
epilogue
Angry protestors trying to storm DM’s office with
the bodies of victims of secret killings

Justice K. N. Saikia, the man

who headed the commisison
The secret killing of Assam was a state-sponsored
weapon attempting to tame the militants. It was ini-
tially successful but soon it went out of control and in
the process took the AGP government with it.
However, long before the Saikia Commission
looked into 11 major cases and 24 other smaller
cases, Assam saw two major murders which laid the
foundation for the future secret killings.
The first murder was of noted journalist and
human rights activist Parag Das and the second one
was of Mitradev Mahanta. Delhi School of
Economics alumni Parag Das was a banker-turned-
journalist. He rose to become one of the most loved
editor of Assam with a cult following. He openly sup-
ported the cause of the ULFA and his writings were
hugely popular. He was editing the highly popular
Assamese newspaper Asomiya Pratidin when he
was killed by unknown militants on May 17, 1996. It
was widely believed that his writings were damaging
the business interests of the surrendered ULFA
members and also regularly provoked ULFA to go
after the SULFAs.
A CBI inquiry was conducted; most of the culprits
were identified. Only recently, some of the school
children of the Asom Jaitya Vidyalaya, who were
present in the school courtyard and witnessed the
actual killing, identified in court some of those
196 secret killings of assam

involved. But the case is nowhere near conclusion

and most of those involved in the killing were elimi-
nated by the ULFA, who considered Parag Das as
an ideologue.
Then, there was the Mitradev Mahanta murder.
Although the root cause of the murder and the cul-
prits were never found or never sought to be found,
the fact remains that he was shot dead just next to
his home on September 12, 1997. A successful busi-
nessman and publisher of the weekly magazine
“Pratyay”, his killing was widely considered a corol-
lary to the Parag Das killing.
Many suspected that the two murders had some
links but that was never established and no proper
inquiry was ever conducted. In fact, Mahanta’s
father refused to file a FIR also. The police did file a
suo moto FIR but it did not progress far. However,
the CBI did a thorough inquiry into the killing of
Parag Das and found some links to Mahanta’s mur-
der.
That was the beginning of the secret killing. That
was also the genesis of the Secret Killing, which
took a full-fledged organized shape between 1998-
2001. It went on unabated till Prafulla Kumar
Mahanta and the AGP were unseated by the people
of Assam in 2001.
During this period, braving enormous physical
risk, local media played a decisive role to mould the
public opinion. The killings were taking place bla-
tantly defying all laws of the land. Everyone knew
who were behind these killings. Any sensible person
knew that the SULFA was used by the security
forces.
The game plan of the security forces, or more
precisely of a select group of top Assam Police offi-
cers, was to engage ULFA with SULFAs and extract
epilogue 197

results from both sides. Such was the complete dis-

respect for the rule of the law that none of the killings
were properly investigated and it seemed that
everyone in the police administration colluded with
the killers. They were in turn well supported and
instructed by the political masters.
It is not yet clear why the AGP, who has always
been considered softer to ULFA than other parties,
because of historical similarties, turned completely
against the militants. There was no doubt that NDA
government was pressurizing the AGP to act deci-
sively. Perhaps it was a Frankenstein, which went
out of control. The counter-insurgency strategists
also found it the most suitable way of combating the
growing clouts of ULFA.
But it backfired and burnt everyone in the
process. The entire AGP was wiped off and for two
successive Assembly elections they had to sit in the
Opposition bench as the episode of secret killings
continued to haunt them and the Congress cleverly
used it to their political advantage.
As far as the Saikia Commission was concerned,
there were four reports. The first report was submit-
ted on August 21, 2006. Justice Saikia had been
entrusted with the responsibilities vide notification
no PLA 331\2005\1 on August, 16, 2005. Initially the
notification included 11 main cases, which formed
the core of the secret killing episode. Amongst them
were the murders of ULFA Chairman Aurobindo
Rajkhowa’s elder brother, ULFA Publicity Secretary
Mithinga Daimary’s family, ULFA leader Subhash
Sharma’s relatives, ULFA Foreign Secretary Sasha
Choudhury’s brother and of Dwizen Haloi and
Phulen Haloi.
Later, through another notification
(PLA331\2005\2) dated September 3, 2005, 24
198 secret killings of assam

more cases between 1998 and 2001 were also

included. The second notification also included the
most sensational of all cases, the kidnapping of
AJYCP leader Ananta Kalita and his miraculous
escape from death. The Commission submitted its
first report on August 28, 2006. It contained the first
six cases and Ananta Kalita’s case.
The Assam Government gave five responsibili-
ties to the Commission. They were

● Identify the nature of the killings.

● Identify culprits and associates.
● Identify any conspiracy behind the killings.
● Identify those responsible for direct and indirect
killings.
● Suggest measures how to stop all such killings in
future.

After almost 30 months, the report of the

Commission found similarities among all these
killings and also suggested some measures to stop
future occurrences. The similarities are:

● In almost all the killings, the victims were related

to senior leaders of the ULFA. All the police
inquiries met with dead end and there were no
arrests, no inquiries and every killing was
hushed up.
● Almost all the killings took place around midnight
so that assailants could escape easily and could
not be identified.
● In all the killings, assailants covered their face
with black hood. However, except Ananta Kalita,
no body survived to tell the final moments of the
killings and the nature of killings.
● In most of the killings .32 and .38 bore weapons
epilogue 199

were used. Both of them are prohibited and can

be used only by security forces.
● The recovered materials like cartridges and
weapons were not sent to forensic laboratories
for ballistic tests. Even if those, which were sent,
were sent very late and often reports were never
collected.
● The vehicles used in the killings were either
Maruti Van or Tata Sumo. They did not have
number plates or had them covered. None of the
vehicles were seized by police. It gives birth to
suspicion that government vehicles were used
for the killings.
● In some areas the regular police patrol party
went missing mysteriously on that particular
night when the secret killing took place.
● Army was involved everywhere. There was proof
of collusion between Assam Police and SULFA.
An extra-judicial killing force was created in the
form of the SULFA. The modus operandi was to
first pressurize the relatives to persuade the
ULFA leaders to surrender. When it failed, their
activities were monitored closely and one fine
night they were eliminated.
● There was strong public resentment against the
Unified Command Structure and the then chief
minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.
● There was initially a murmur and then SULFA
members were openly accused of carrying out
those ghastly murders. There were clues but
they were never investigated properly.
● There was no use of modern and scientific
methods of inquiry like snifter dogs, ballistic and
forensic examination of finger prints and empty
cartridges recovered at the crime spot. There
state government did not send any condolence
200 secret killings of assam

message to any of the victim’s families.

● No monetary compensation was offered to any
of the families of the victims. They were eliminat-
ed just because they were related to ULFA lead-
ers.
● There was enough indication that the entire
episode was remote controlled by someone and
that could be the then Home Minister of Assam
who happened to be Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.

The Saikia Commission did give some sugges-

tions, many of them vague and simply not imple-
mentable. It advocated for the withdrawal of the
Unified Command Structure and Army from the
state. Both are highly impractical as Assam police is
completely incompetent to handle any counter-
insurgency operation on its own.
The commission also talked about declaring
ceasefire with ULFA and then extending it for six
months at a stretch for lasting peace in the state. But
that is not on the cards, at least, for now.
The Saikia Commission submitted the second
supplementary with eight cases on December 12,
2006 while the third part, which had 10 cases, was
submitted on March 5, 2007. The final part was sub-
mitted on August 8, 2007 and Chief Minister Tarun
Gogoi tabled the reports on the floor of the Assam
Assembly on November 11, 2007.
The Chief Minister also placed the preliminary
report of the Justice J N Sharma Commission of
Inquiry, findings of which was rejected by the State
Government. The report was rejected as it could not
pinpoint the culprit. The Commission blamed non-
cooperation from the police force as well as bureau-
crats.
The report did kick up a storm in Assam’s politi-
epilogue 201

cal firmament but it did not last long. The Congress

government did drum up the Commission findings
which indicted Prafulla Kumar Mahanta who headed
the AGP government then and his minister Nurul
Haque—both now MLAs of the House—to knock a
killer punch to the Opposition.
But by April 2008, the findings of Saikia
Commission faded from public memory. It could not
cause any serious damage to the Opposition. The
State Government, as per the recommendation of
the Saikia Commission, did start inquiry into all the
11 cases and, in fact, formed a committee also.
Besides, all the victims’ families have been given Rs
3 lakh each.
But the way the Congress government has been
handling the issue, it is more than clear that they
would be using it more as a political weapon against
its Opposition rather than taking it to a logical con-
clusion.
It is also true that there was a school of thought
that the tit-for-tat tactic adopted by the AGP regime
to teach ULFA a lesson, was a right one, as the mil-
itant group had always been killing innocent people.
ULFA did get a taste of its own medicine. But in
the end, state-sponsored extra-judicial killings in any
civilized society can never be justified.
The report demoralized the police force, special-
ly those officers who are keen to take ULFA head on.
The report has ensured that there would be no sys-
tematic confrontation with ULFA anymore and all the
counter-insurgency operation will be basically more
of accidental or incidental than a planned strategy.
No officer will go out if its way to confront them.
There is a strong suspicion that the Congress
had some sort of understanding with the ULFA
before the 2001 Assembly elections and promised
202 secret killings of assam

an inquiry into the secret killings after coming to

power.
Using favourable public opinion, created by a pli-
ant pro-ULFA media, the Congress stormed to
power wiping out the AGP in 2001. It did stop secret
killings but, in the process, broke the entire fighting
spirit of Assam Police, who now just want to swim
with the system doing the mundane job of policing
and leaving the counter-insurgency operation to the
Army.
As the Tarun Gogoi was about to celebrate the
second year of his second an innocent Namghoria
Dulen Barua was shot dead in a similar manner in
Himpora Village near Moran on April 23, 2008.
What is ironical that at the time of this book going
to press, the same Congress government has
announced the formation of an “Auxiliary force” of
the surrendered militants to take on militants.
According to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, it would
be the size of a battalion, i.e, 1,000 strong, and can
be deployed anywhere in the state for specific pur-
pose for a specific time period.
When confronted, whether it would be another
force of secret killers, the Chief Minister only said,
“We will have tighter control.”
Who knows… it may be another Frankenstein in
the making. Only time will say.
 endnotes
1. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing , Pg No 78
2. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 80
3. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 80-88
4. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 79-93
5. The Second Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia
commisison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg
no 136-137
6. The Second Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia
commisison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg
149-152
7. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 127-129
8. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 125-131
9. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 19-24
10. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 26,32
11. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 20,25
12. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 21-24
13. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 23-24
14. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 25
15. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 43-44
16. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg 44-49,51
17. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg No 53
18. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg No 54
19. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg No 44
20. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg No 63,64
21. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg No 64
22. The Last Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia commi-
sison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg No
14,15
 endnotes
23. The Last Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg No
31,34
24. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg No 96,105
25. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg No 96
26. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg No 104-107
27. The Last Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg No
42
28. The Last Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg No
50-56
29. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg No 143
30. The First Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of eight cases, Pg No
44-45
31. Report of Justice K N Saikia Commission of Inquiry on the
first group of seven cases on Secret Killing, Pg No 116
32. The First Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of eight cases, Pg No
10
33. The Second Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia
commisison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg
No 157-162
34. The Second Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia
commisison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg
No 103-106
35. The First Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of eight cases, Pg No
31-36
36. The First Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of eight cases, Pg No
17-29
37. The Second Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia
commisison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg
No 119-125
38. The Last Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg No
95-102
39. The First Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of eight cases, Pg No
56-62
40. The First Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
 endnotes
misison of inquiry on the second group of eight cases, Pg No
83-90
41. The First Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of eight cases, Pg No
68-75
42. The Second Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia
commisison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg
No
43. The Second Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia
commisison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg
No 9-16
44. The Last Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg No
152-168
45. The Last Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg No
170-190
46. The Second Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia
commisison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg
No 52-64
47. The Second Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia
commisison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg
No 66-75
48. The Second Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia
commisison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg
No 40-49
49. The Last Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg No
62-70
50. The Last Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg No
79-90
51. The Last Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg No
192-199
52. The Last Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia com-
misison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg No
116-136
53. The Second Supplementary Report of Justice K N Saikia
commisison of inquiry on the second group of ten cases, Pg
No 25-40
mrinal talukdar, a veteran of conflict reporting
of North East India for over two decades, heads
the region for UNI. He is also a well known
documentary film maker both nationally and
internationally besides being an adventure trav-
el writer and television personality.

utpal borpujari, a geologist-turned-journalist,

has been writing on politics, North-East India
and cinema for over 15 years. Before taking up
his present assignment with Deccan Herald in
New Delhi he worked with The Sentinel in
Guwahati and PTI in New Delhi. He is also a
National Award-winning film critic.

kaushik deka, an alumnus of the Indian

Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi,
is currently working with India Today. Though
he condemns the Secret Killings, he believes
ULFA is the worst menace to have hit the state
after Independence.