The prime accused in the gang rape of a 14-year-old girl in the Nagaon district of Assam, who was arrested on Friday, allegedly drowned in a pond when he tried to flee from police custody, officers aware of the matter said, the latest in a string of custodial deaths in the state since January.
In an unrelated but similar incident, the accused in a sexual assault case was shot by the Tezpur police after he allegedly tried to attack the personnel and escape. (Representational image)
According to Nagaon superintendent of police (SP) Swapnaneel Deka, the accused Tafazzul Islam, was taken to the area where the alleged incident happened on August 22, as part of the investigation, around 3.30am to recreate the crime scene.
“He suddenly attacked the police and jumped into a pond located nearby at around 4am. After nearly two hours of search, his body was recovered,” Deka said. He said that the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and police jointly conducted the search operation to locate his body. Islam was taken to a government hospital where the doctors declared him dead on arrival, Deka added.
The incident has sparked a new controversy in the state, with Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday saying the people are “seeking instant justice because the lawyers are defending them [the accused] in court”. The Congress, meanwhile, said that while it did not sympathise with the accused, the number of custodial deaths in the state is something that needs to be questioned.
After attending the 150th anniversary of the Silchar Bar Association, Sarma wrote on X: “… I told advocates that the reason ‘Instant Justice’ in gruesome rape cases has risen is because society knows that an accused will use his lawyer to frustrate the judicial process. Defence lawyers must behave responsibly.”
Responding to Sarma’s comments, president of the Silchar bar association, Dulal Mitra, said he did not support the CM’s “generalisation” of lawyers. “We have many lawyers who deny representing the criminals in such cases. Of course there are exceptions but please do not generalise us,” he said.
The remarks came a day after Sarma, in a strongly worded post on X about the minor’s gang rape, wrote: “… We will NOT SPARE anyone & BRING the perpetrators to JUSTICE. I’ve directed @DGPAssamPolice to visit the site and ensure swift action against such monsters.”
Additionally, during a press conference on Saturday, Sarma said: “… After the Lok Sabha elections this year, we are seeing a specific community of people indulging in criminal activities… The perpetrators of the incident at Dhing, involving a Hindu minor, will be punished”.
In an unrelated but similar incident, the accused in a sexual assault case was shot by the Tezpur police after he allegedly tried to attack the personnel and escape. The accused, Miraz Ali, was arrested earlier this week along with another man named Shah Rukh for allegedly trying to rape a woman. Police said Miraz was taken to the crime spot as a part of the investigation, where he attacked the police and tried to snatch their guns. “We warned him, but he did not stop… we had to shoot him in self-defence,” police said, adding that Miraz was taken to a government hospital where his condition is said to be critical.
According to Sarma, 23 cases of rape have been reported across Assam since June 4 this year. He said that such crimes are on the rise in the areas where the “indigenous population” is decreasing.
Islam, one of the three accused in the alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old student in Nagaon’s Dhing, was arrested on Friday under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
After Islam’s death, locals in his village refused to take part in his last rites. Some Islamic organisations have supported this. They said they took the decision since Islam was involved in a heinous crime.
Meanwhile, the Assam Congress on Saturday demanded a white paper from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state and the state women’s commission, detailing crimes against women over the past decade, including the rate of conviction and measures to curb such incidents. Party functionaries also criticised the CM for giving a “communal colour” to incidents of rape.
The party criticised the current law and order situation and said that Sarma should be held accountable, given his dual role as the CM and the home minister. Congress MLA Abdur Rashid Mandal said on Saturday that while he has no sympathy for the accused and “people like him should die”, the series of custodial deaths begs the question of how they happen.
“There is no sympathy for such a man. He must die. This is a disgrace to the whole community. But the question arises of how does this death happen in police custody. Legally, he should have been punished. I am not supporting him but this raises questions on the performance of the police,” said Mandal.
Separately, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) vice-president, Bobbeeta Sharma, said that the increasing rate of crimes in the state raised questions about the government’s effectiveness. “While we, as a society, feel ashamed over these crimes, it also raises questions over the government’s effectiveness. We have not seen adequate efforts from the government to ensure women’s safety in recent years,” Sharma said during a press conference.
HT reported in March that at least four deaths in police shootings have been registered in Assam since the Gauhati high court disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on January 27 seeking an independent inquiry into alleged extra-judicial killings in the state since May, 2021.
The human rights organisations in the state had said the rising number of such cases was alarming, and the State Police Accountability Commission (SPAC), Assam, had registered suo motu complaints to investigate two deaths. On February 26 this year, Sarma had also ordered a CID inquiry into a death following confusion over the identity of the deceased.
Of the four deaths at the time, one was a suspected leader of the proscribed outfit United Liberation Front of Assam-Independent (ULFA-I) and the other three were criminals who either tried to escape or attacked the police, police had said. Some police personnel also sustained injuries in these incidents.
In December 2021, a Delhi-based advocate from Assam, Arif Jwadder, filed a PIL against the Assam Police, alleging that many of the deaths and injuries in police shootings since a new BJP-led government took charge in May 2021 were “fake”. After 18 hearings, the court disposed of the PIL and said it could not issue a general direction on the petition. Jwadder demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the killings.
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