New Delhi: After the Assam government submitted an incomplete post-mortem report of three men who it claims were militants and who were killed last week, the Gauhati high court directed that the men’s bodies be preserved until the state submits its final report, the Indian Express reported.
According to police in Assam’s Cachar district, it apprehended the three men – who hailed from the tribal Hmar community – on July 16 and took them to an area where other militants were hiding, following which they died in ensuing crossfire.
But the families of the three men have contested the police’s narrative, saying they were not militants and that their deaths were staged.
While police said the three men were wearing bulletproof Kevlar outfits and shot at them before they were apprehended, a video of the three men being intercepted by the police and which has since gone viral does not show them wearing the outfits.
On Friday, the Indian Express reported, the Gauhati high court found that the state government’s post-mortem report of the three men did not have a final opinion on the cause of their death, given that the viscera report in the case is still pending.
It directed the state government to file its final report before the next listing in the case, which is due on August 2.
The three men’s families have asked that their post-mortem be conducted outside Assam, the Indian Express reported.
As per The Hindu, they have sought in the high court that an independent investigation be conducted into the case by a senior police officer from outside the state.
Another video of the three men that has since surfaced shows them being taken inside a dense forest and dressed in bulletproof outfits, though their families have alleged the men may have been forced to wear the outfits.
Appearing for their families in the high court, advocate Colin Gonsalves cited the videos in his plea that the investigation into their killing be transferred to the CBI.
“These three videos show these boys in the custody of the Assam police. Taken in an auto with their hands tied, taken in a somewhat jungle area, and ultimately the bodies are found in some area with bullet holes and so on,” the Indian Express quoted him as saying.
Gonsalves continued: “So now this is the case, where no matter what they may say orally, they will find it very difficult to put up a case of exchange of fire and genuine encounter,” and added to ask that the six policemen who apprehended the men be arrested.
While one of the three belonged to Manipur, the other two were residents of a village along Assam’s border with Manipur.
When news of their killings spread, various Hmar civil society organisations and student bodies from Manipur and elsewhere, so also from the Kuki community, issued press statements condemning the killings and termed them as ‘fake encounters’ by the Assam police.
The Churachandpur-based Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum highlighted the “glaring inconsistency” in the videos and what the police officially stated and called the killings “extra-judicial”.
Although the Cachar police said the three were killed in crossfire, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a post on X earlier that they were killed by the Assam police.
