AJP welcomes SC directive on fake encounters, seeks CM’s inclusion in probe
In July 2021 CM instructed police officials to shoot alleged criminals below the knee.;

Guwahati, May 29: The Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) has demanded that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma be brought under the ambit of the ongoing investigation into extra-judicial killings in the State, being conducted by the Assam Human Rights Commission on the directive of the Supreme Court.
AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi and general secretary Jagadish Bhuyan stated that the Chief Minister, who also holds the Home portfolio, had in July 2021 instructed police officials to shoot alleged criminals below the knee. The controversial directive, they alleged, led to a sharp rise in police encounters across Assam.
“Sarma had summoned all officers-in-charge and district superintendents of police to the Assam Administrative Staff College in Khanapara, Guwahati, and asked them to shoot criminals in the legs. This order was issued in the presence of then DGP GP Singh. Soon after, encounter killings surged across the State,” the AJP said.
The Chief Minister reportedly told the media that “this would now be the pattern of Assam Police,” a statement, the AJP claims, marked the beginning of a disturbing trend of extra-judicial actions.
Welcoming the Supreme Court’s decision to order a probe into such encounters, the AJP called it a necessary step toward restoring the rule of law and ensuring accountability.
“Since extra-judicial shootings and killings escalated after Chief Minister Sarma’s directive as the Home Minister, and since the Supreme Court has now expressed concern over these incidents and ordered an investigation, it is only appropriate under any investigation protocol to also include the person who issued the unlawful directive,” said Gogoi and Bhuyan.
The AJP, which has long opposed extra-judicial killings, said the apex court’s intervention now validates its repeated concerns about the erosion of legal and Constitutional norms under the current regime.
By
Staff Reporter