The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Assam government and the Defence Ministry to pay a total of Rs 30 lakh as relief to the families of six victims who were killed in separate cases of encounters in Assam. Four cases of such encounters have been considered fake by NHRC.
The Commission found four cases of encounters carried out by Assam Police, along with the units of the Army and paramilitary forces in different parts of Assam, as fake.
“Out of these, in three cases, the Commission has asked the government of Assam to pay a sum of total Rs 25 lakh as relief to the next of kin of the victims. “In the fourth case, it has asked the Union Ministry of Defence to pay an amount of Rs 5 lakh as relief,” an NHRC statement said.
In all the cases, neither the Assam government nor the Defence Ministry could convince the Commission in response to its notices that the encounters were genuine and that the armed forces had to open fire in self-defence when they were attacked by the alleged miscreants and suspected extremists. The Commission has recommended a payment of Rs 5 lakh to the family of one Piku Ali, who was killed in police firing in Nagaon district on July 23, 2008.
Two persons, Mriganka Hazarika and Himanshu Gogoi, were killed in police firing in Dispur on the night of February 23, 2011. The Commission has recommended that next of kin of both the victims be paid Rs 5 lakh each as relief.