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GUWAHATI: A 29-year-long legal battle that revolved around a conflict between the CBI, which indicted seven Army personnel for allegedly murdering five persons of Assam illegally, and the Army court martial, which held its men not guilty, was closed by Gauhati High Court (HC) last week “without arriving at any conclusion” to “establish the facts” as the victims’ families and the Army have submitted futility of another probe after such a long time.
A bench of justices Achintya Malla Bujor Barua and Robin Phukan, while closing the two habeas corpus petitions, considered rival submissions that further inquiry may be futile as the petitioners submitted that “no further credible materials may be available and also the stand of the Army authorities that because of the elapse of time the Army personnel, where most of them have retired from service”.
But the bench accepted that the death of the five persons took place during an Army operation and directed the Centre to pay compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to families of the five deceased persons within two months “for the interest of justice”.
The HC noted, “We are of the view that instead of trying to arrive at a definite conclusion as to whether the death was caused in a manner other than acceptable in law, we accept the situation that the death of the aforesaid five persons, Prabin Sonowal, Akhil Sonowal, Debajit Biswas, Pradip Dutta and Bhupen Moran took place during an Army operation.”
The conflict between CBI and the Army was on whether the five persons — four of them students and members of All Assam Students Union — who were picked up by the Army between February 14 and 17, 1994, from different places in Tinsukia district were “killed in a manner other than acceptable in law” or otherwise.
The CBI, after a probe on court’s order, said in its 2002 report, “the encounter theory as claimed by the Army is not believable,” and indicted five Army personnel for “firing on the five persons” and two senior officers for “planning the operation and ordering the firing” and charged them with murder, causing disappearance of evidence of offence and abetment.
A bench of justices Achintya Malla Bujor Barua and Robin Phukan, while closing the two habeas corpus petitions, considered rival submissions that further inquiry may be futile as the petitioners submitted that “no further credible materials may be available and also the stand of the Army authorities that because of the elapse of time the Army personnel, where most of them have retired from service”.
But the bench accepted that the death of the five persons took place during an Army operation and directed the Centre to pay compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to families of the five deceased persons within two months “for the interest of justice”.
The HC noted, “We are of the view that instead of trying to arrive at a definite conclusion as to whether the death was caused in a manner other than acceptable in law, we accept the situation that the death of the aforesaid five persons, Prabin Sonowal, Akhil Sonowal, Debajit Biswas, Pradip Dutta and Bhupen Moran took place during an Army operation.”
The conflict between CBI and the Army was on whether the five persons — four of them students and members of All Assam Students Union — who were picked up by the Army between February 14 and 17, 1994, from different places in Tinsukia district were “killed in a manner other than acceptable in law” or otherwise.
The CBI, after a probe on court’s order, said in its 2002 report, “the encounter theory as claimed by the Army is not believable,” and indicted five Army personnel for “firing on the five persons” and two senior officers for “planning the operation and ordering the firing” and charged them with murder, causing disappearance of evidence of offence and abetment.
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