Top CRPF officer alleges fake encounter in Assam

The officer has called for a full-fledged investigation into the incident.

Media reports quoted the report of  Rajnish Rai, an Inspector General of Police, serving with the CRPF in the North East as saying that the encounter — neat Simlaguri village under Amguri police station — that led to the death of two suspected members of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit), or NDFB(S) faction, was staged as the two were picked up from a house in D-Kalling village and killed in cold blood.

Rai has alleged that weapons were planted on their bodies.

The joint operation was carried out by  the Army, Assam Police, CRPF and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in Chirang district of Assam in the early hours of March 30.

According to the official version, security forces  had come under indiscriminate fire from a group of Bodo militants during a joint operation on late on March 30 and this led to the death of two suspected militants.

But contrary to this version, the report Rai has sent to the Government is said to be based on testimonies of witnesses.

He says he has witnesses who have identified the bodies as those of the two men who were picked up and that these witnesses are in his safe custody.

The Indian Express quotes Rai's report :  “Had this unlawful act been committed by a group of a few deviant officers, I would not have been so concerned. However, since multiple security agencies were involved in this incident, it indicates a deeper institutional malady in the functioning of the country’s most prestigious security forces. It represents a dangerous deterioration and degradation of institutional processes.”