16 years on, Assam family massacre reaches NHRC amid claims of political interference

Sixteen years after six members of a family were hacked to death inside their home in Assam’s Kamrup Metropolitan district, a local organisation has approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), alleging grave human rights violations and a sustained attempt to derail justice.

The Dimoria Bikash Manch has urged the NHRC to intervene in the Jogdal village massacre case, seeking a fair, independent and time-bound investigation into the killings, which remain unresolved more than a decade and a half later.

On the night of December 12, 2009, unidentified assailants brutally murdered Harakanta Doloi, his wife Swapna, their three children and a nephew at their residence in Jogdal. Despite the scale and brutality of the crime, no one has yet been held accountable.

The Manch has alleged that the killings were linked to powerful political interests seeking to acquire land in the area for the construction of a luxury hotel, and that the investigation was compromised from the outset. According to the petition, “the investigation was deliberately weakened due to the suspected involvement of a then minister of the Assam government”, when the Congress was in power in the state.

Chief adviser of the Manch, Dibyajyoti Medhi, who submitted the petition on Saturday, said, “We met a member of the panel and handed our petition. He has assured us of looking into the case.”

Medhi said the family had no known disputes that could explain the crime. “It has been 16 years but justice has not been done yet. But, we are still hopeful that the NHRC will be able to get justice for the victims. Doloi was a marginal cultivator, and the family was economically impoverished, with no known enmity with any individual or group,” he said.

The petition raises serious concerns about the initial police probe conducted by Sonapur police. It alleges the investigation was “neither impartial nor diligent” and claims that “serious attempts were reportedly made to destroy crucial evidence, including the burning of the victim’s house after the incident”.

Further suspicion was cast on the handling of the case after a prime accused, Arjun Bordoloi, was killed under what the petition describes as “mysterious circumstances” on September 5, 2012.

The case was later transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). On December 7, 2017, two police officers — Pranab Kumar Deka, then officer-in-charge of Sonapur police station, and A M Choudhury, the investigating officer — were arrested for allegedly destroying evidence to shield the actual perpetrators. A year later, the Assam government handed the case over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Despite repeated protests and representations by local ethnic and social organisations over the years, authorities have shown little urgency, the Manch alleged.

In its appeal to the NHRC, the organisation said, “… it is humbly prayed that your esteemed office may kindly take cognisance of the grave human rights violations involved in this case and intervene appropriately to ensure a fair, independent, and time-bound process leading to justice for the victims.”

The petition also demands that all those responsible for the murders, as well as for obstructing justice, be brought to book in accordance with the law. (With inputs from PTI)