In what may be a major setback for the Congress government, the National Human Rights Commission has held an encounter of two persons by the Assam police as fake.
The encounter took place on May 19, 2010 in which the police claimed to have killed two extremists, namely Chandra Tokbi and Ananda Teron, in Bokulia police station area of Karbi Anglong district.
The commission, after examining the material and record placed before it, found several loopholes in the police theory of a genuine encounter and held the incident as a grave violation of human rights.
It has also issued a showcause notice to the government of Assam as to why the commission should not recommend monetary relief to the next of kin of victims Chandra Tokbi and Ananda Teron.
The Assam government has been given six weeks’ time to respond without fail.
The commission has found that the police version showing bullets to have been fired during the encounter from the weapons recovered from their person was not corroborated by an independent report from the ballistic expert.
There was no report from the fingerprint expert to indicate that the weapons recovered had fingerprints of the victims or gunshot residue was taken from victims’ hands to indicate that they fired the weapons.
The fact that the weapons had not been properly and individually sealed after the incident meant that their value as evidence was dubious. There was no proof that either Chandra Tokbi or Ananda Teron had handled or fired from the weapons because the police did not conduct the essential tests.
The autopsy report of Ananda Teron established that his left leg had a fracture with the dislocation of the femur.