The Crime Investigation Department (CID) in Assam today arrested Ashirbad Hazarika, Executive Magistrate of the Dalgaon Revenue Circle in the Darrang district, in the sensational Dhula rape and murder case of a minor girl. Hazarika is the latest high-profile official to be arrested in the case, after the arrest of Darrang District SP Rajmohan Roy yesterday and other officials earlier. They are accused of trying to protect the accused in the crime in exchange for money by terming it a suicide case.
So far, a magistrate, three police officials including an SP and an ASP, and three government doctors have been arrested in the case, after CM Himanta Biswa Sarma formed an SIT to probe the case after the family of the victim alleged that police were trying to protect the accused.
After absconding for some time, Ashirbad Hazarika surrendered before the CID on Thursday after he was summoned for questioning in the case. He had ignored several summons issued earlier, but at last, appeared on Thursday following the arrest of SP Rajmohan Roy in the case. Hazarika’s residence was sealed by the CID on Wednesday for not responding to the summons. Following his surrender, Hazarika was arrested by the investigating team.
Both suspended magistrate Ashirbad Hazarika and suspended SP Rajmohan Roy will be produced before a special judicial court in Guwahati today.
These arrests came after three government doctors and an additional SP were arrested by the CID on Monday. They are Rupam Phukan, former additional SP of Darrang district, and Dr. Arun Ch. Deka, Dr. Ajanta Bordoloi and Dr. Anupam Sharma of Mangalai Civil Hospital. Before that, the CID had arrested Sub-Inspector Utpal Bora, the then Officer-in-Charge of Dhula police station, on November 1.
All the arrested officers were already suspended from their positions in August, along with Dhula police station’s investigating officer Anwar Hussain.
All these high-profile arrests are in connection to the death of a minor Adivasi girl on 11 June, who was working as a domestic help at the house of Sashatra Seema Bal (SSB) Jawan Krishna Kamal Baruah. The 13-year-old girl was found hanging in the rented house of Baruah at Dhula in Darrang district, a small town around 7 km away from district headquarters Mangaldoi.
While the case was suspected to be a suicide case, Krishna Kamal Baruah was arrested by police. But the family of the girl alleged that the police were not probing the case properly, and were trying to protect Baruah. They had also claimed that Dhula OC Utpal Bora had pressurised them to not file a complaint over the death of the girl.
Both the police and accused Krishna Kamal Baruah claimed that the girl had committed suicide, which was also confirmed by the post-mortem report done by doctors from Mangaldoi Civil Hospital, after which her body was buried.
But the family of the girl continued to contest the police version, and after local media picked up the issue, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and DGP Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta visited the family in August and after hearing their pleas, ordered that the case be investigated by an SIT. According to the orders, the case was transferred to the CID on August 12.
This CID probe unearthed a horrific crime by the accused SSB Jawan, and the shocking connivance of multiple government officials and doctors to protect the accused. After taking of the case, the CID team exhumed the body and got a second post-mortem done. They also got the body examined by forensic experts and conducted DNA profiling of the accused Baruah, which matched with DNA material found on the clothes of the victim girl.
CID found several lapses by the police in probing the case. They didn’t take any video of the investigation process and didn’t collect any fingerprints. On the other hand, Executive Magistrate Hazarika issued a report stating that the girl died by suicide even without vising the crime scene.
Similarly, the three government doctors who did the first post-mortem had reported that they didn’t find any injury marks on the body. The second post-mortem, conducted by a high-level medical team comprising doctors of the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), AIIMS Guwahati and Northeastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS-Shillong), said that there were injury marks on the skull and then the neck of the girl, and concluded that she died due to homicidal strangulation and not suicide. Moreover, they also found that the girl was raped, and found that Baruah raped her after DNA samples matched.
Investigating bank records of the accused and the officials, the probe team found that the police officials had received bribes from Baruah. OC Bora received Rs 5 lakh, Additional SP Rupam Phukan received Rs 1.5 lakh and SP Rajmohan Roy was paid Rs 2 lakh by the accused. It is believed that Bora had managed the doctors from the amount received from the accused to prepare a false post-mortem report terming it a suicide case. At present, it is not known whether Executive Magistrate Ashirbad Hazarika was paid any bribe or not.
OC Utpal Bora, ASP Rupam Phukan and the three arrested doctors are in judicial custody at present. The main accused Krishna Kamal Baruah is also in judicial custody, and a detailed charge sheet was filed against him on September 25. He has been booked for molestation, murder, destruction of evidence, attempt to rape under IPC and sexual assault on a minor child under POCSO Act.
Apart from bank records, the CID also studied Call records, cell tower location, travel history etc to prepare the case. OC Utpal Bora has been charged under sections 120B, 420, 218 of the IPC read with sections 7(b) and 8(1)(i) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
