Accused in Assam tries to escape from custody and drowns: Police | Latest news from India

According to Nagaon Superintendent of Police (SP) Swapnaneel Deka, as part of the investigation, the accused Tafazzul Islam was taken to the area where the alleged incident took place at around 3:30 am on August 22 to reconstruct the crime scene.

“He suddenly attacked the police and jumped into a nearby pond around 4 am. After nearly two hours of search, his body was recovered,” Deka said. He said the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and police jointly conducted the search operation to find his body. Islam was taken to a government hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival, Deka added.

The incident has sparked a fresh controversy in the state. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday that people are “seeking immediate justice because lawyers are defending them. [the accused] in court.” Congress, meanwhile, said that while it had no sympathy for the defendants, the number of deaths in state custody was questionable.

After attending the 150th annual convention of the Silchar Bar Association, Sarma wrote on X: “…I told lawyers that the number of victims of 'instant justice' in gruesome rape cases has increased because society knows that an accused uses his lawyer to obstruct the legal proceedings. Defense lawyers must behave responsibly.”

Reacting to Sarma's comments, Silchar Bar Association president Dulal Mitra said he did not support the chief minister's “generalisation” of lawyers. “We have many lawyers who deny representing the criminals in such cases. Of course, there are exceptions, but please do not generalise us,” he said.

These remarks came a day after Sarma wrote in a strongly worded post on X about the gang rape of the minors: “…We will not spare anyone and will bring the culprits to justice. I have directed @DGPAssamPolice to visit the spot and ensure speedy action against such monsters.”

Furthermore, Sarma said during a press conference on Saturday, “…After the Lok Sabha elections this year, we see a certain community of people indulging in criminal activities…The perpetrators of the Dhing incident involving a minor Hindu will be punished.”

In a separate but similar incident, the accused in a sexual assault case was shot dead by the Tezpur police after he allegedly tried to attack the staff and escape. The accused Miraz Ali was arrested earlier this week along with another man named Shah Rukh for allegedly attempting to rape a woman. Police said Miraz was taken to the scene as part of investigation where he attacked the policemen and tried to snatch their weapons. “We warned him but he did not stop… we had to shoot him in self-defence,” police said, adding that Miraz was taken to a government hospital where his condition is said to be critical.

According to Sarma, 23 cases of rape have been reported across Assam since June 4 this year. He said such crimes are increasing in the areas where the “local population” is decreasing.

Islam, one of the three accused in connection with the alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Nagaon's Dhing area, was arrested on Friday under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

After Islam's death, the residents of his village refused to attend his last rites. Some Islamic organizations supported this, saying they made this decision because Islam had been involved in a heinous crime.

Meanwhile, the Assam Congress on Saturday demanded that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and the state women's commission submit a white paper detailing crimes against women in the last decade, including the conviction rate and measures taken to curb such incidents. Party workers also criticised the chief minister for giving a “communal tinge” to rape incidents.

The party criticised the current legal situation and said Sarma must be held accountable given his dual role as chief minister and home minister. Congress MP Abdur Rashid Mandal said on Saturday that while he had no sympathy for the accused and “people like him should die”, the series of deaths in custody raises questions about how this can happen.

“There is no sympathy for such a man. He must die. This is a disgrace for the entire community. But the question is how this death could happen in police custody. Legally, he should have been punished. I do not support him, but this raises questions about the performance of the police,” Mandal said.

Bobbeeta Sharma, vice president of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), also said that the rising crime rate in the state raises doubts about the government's effectiveness. “While we as a society are ashamed of these crimes, it also raises doubts about the government's effectiveness. We have not seen sufficient efforts from the government to ensure the safety of women in the last few years,” Sharma said during a press conference.

HT reported in March that at least four deaths in police firing have been recorded in Assam since the Gauhati High Court on January 27 dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) demanding an independent investigation into alleged extrajudicial killings in the state since May 2021.

Human rights organisations in the state had said the rising number of such cases was alarming and the State Police Accountability Commission (SPAC) in Assam had filed complaints on its own initiative to investigate two deaths. On February 26 this year, Sarma had also ordered a CID probe into a death case following confusion over the identity of the deceased.

One of the four dead was an alleged leader of the banned United Liberation Front of Assam-Independent (ULFA-I) and the other three were criminals who were either trying to escape or attacking the police, police said. Some policemen were also injured in these incidents.

In December 2021, Arif Jwadder, a Delhi-based lawyer from Assam, filed a case against the Assam Police, alleging that many of the deaths and injuries in police shootings since a new BJP-led government came to power in May 2021 were “faked”. After 18 hearings, the court dismissed the case, saying it could not issue a general direction on the case. Jwadder demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the killings.