1994 Assam fake encounter: Centre pays Rs 20 lakh each to families of five victims

Guwahati: The Centre has paid a compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the family members of the five persons who were killed in a fake encounter 30 years ago in Assam's Tinsukia district, Jagadish Bhuyan, a politician in Assam who moved the court on behalf of the families, told DH on Friday.

In 2018, the Army court martialled seven officers including a Major General and sentenced them to life imprisonment for killing five villagers in a fake encounter at Dangri village in 1994, when the Ulfa insurgency was at its peak. The court martial was initiated after a CBI inquiry held the officers guilty of the fake encounter and submitted a report to the Gauhati High Court.

The High Court in March 2023 had asked the Centre to pay compensation of Rs 20 lakh each to the family members of the five victims.

Bhuyan, then a leader of the All Assam Students' Union, who had moved the court calling it a fake encounter, said that family members of the five victims got the compensation money in their bank accounts on Wednesday.

Bhuyan is now the general secretary of Asom Jatiya Parishad, a regional political party in Assam, which came into being in 2020.

He further said that the accused officers, however, were acquitted by an appellate tribunal of the Army a few months after their court martial in 2018. He said that a copy of order of the acquittal was not shared with him despite being the petitioner for the victims' families. This, however, could not be verified with the Army on Friday.

On the night of February 18, 1994, the Army picked up nine youths from the Dangri village in Tinsukia district and five of them were found dead with bullet injuries inside the Dibru Saikhowa National Park. The Army claimed that the five were Ulfa insurgents and were killed during an encounter. The victims were identified as Robin Sonowal, Debojit Biswas, Bhaben Moran, Pradip Dutta, and Akhil Sonowal.

However, Bhuyan had moved the High Court alleging that it was a fake encounter and that the victims were innocent villagers and not insurgents. After several hearings, the High Court had ordered for a CBI investigation.

"Although the Army officers were not given life imprisonment, by paying the compensation, the Centre has accepted that it was a case of fake encounter and the victims were innocent. But I would have been happy if the guilty officers were punished for the crime," Bhuyan said.