JOIN USA CRPF inspector general’s account of a ‘fake encounter’ that took place in Assam two months ago has stirred a hornet’s nest, with the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking a detailed account.
Rajnish Rai, a 1992-batch IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre posted in the north-east, sent a report to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) after he conducted a “discreet” inquiry on his own on a joint operation conducted in the Simlaguri area of Chirang district on March 30, in which two persons were killed.
The official version of the incident had claimed that the two were insurgents from the banned NDFB (S).The joint operation was carried out by a team of the Assam Police, the army, CRPF, CRPF’s jungle warfare unit CoBRA and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).
In his 13-page report, Rai said that the FIR filed by the joint team on the operation was a “fictitious account” to “conceal pre-planned murders” of two persons in custody and to “present it as some brave act of professional achievement”.
According to Rai, Lucas Nazary and David Islary were already in custody and the entire encounter operation was “very likely a case of premeditated custodial killing”. The report also said the weapons were planted on them.
The joint team had claimed in the FIR that the duo died in an exchange of fire.“It is necessary to entrust the investigation in this matter to an external independent agency for an unbiased, impartial and thorough investigation,” Rai said in the report.