Court asks CBI to give status report on Assam editor's murder

Court asks CBI to give status report on Assam editor's murder
Samudra Gupta Kashyap

GUWAHATI, JUNE 30: The brutal murder of Parag Kumar Das, executive editor of Asomiya Pratidin, a leading vernacular daily published from here, has remained a mystery even after the case was handed over to the CBI four months after it took place in May, 1996.

With the probe apparently advancing at a snail's pace, the Guwahati High Court has now directed the Central investigating agency to submit a status report on the issue on or before July 26.

Das, also a front-ranking human rights activist, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the heart of Guwahati when he had just picked up his five-year-old son from school on May 17, four years ago.

While the state government, within three days of the murder, declared that it had identified the assassins and would bring them to book within 15 days, it had to subsequently hand over the case to the CBI in September the same year.

According to the state government's announcements within a few days of the gruesome murder, it was a former ULFA militant called Sarbajeet Dhekial Phukan alias Dheki who was the main culprit in bumping off the journalist-cum-activist. Dhekial Phukan on his part was reported to have fled to Nepal soon after the murder.

But with the passage of time, there was a series of allegations and counter-allegations that different parties like the ULFA, Army, Police or former militants could be involved in the murder, which not only created confusion, but also put the Mahanta Government in a fix. The situation soon compelled Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta to hand over the case to the CBI.

The CBI began its investigations in early 1997, and over the past three years and more, interrogated a large number of persons, but no conclusion has been arrived at as yet.

Annoyed at the inordinate delay as they called it, a group of prominent citizens including noted film-maker Jahnu Barua, Gauhati University professor Dr Hiren Gohain, Asam Bani editor Dilip Chandan and well-known playwright Mahendra Borthakur filed a PIL in the Guwahati High Court, praying for the court's intervention to speed up the probe.

It was in response to this PIL that Justice N C Jain and D Biswas of the Guwahati High Court last week directed the CBI to submit a status report on the investigations on or before July 26, when the matter comes up for hearing again.

Meanwhile, the Asomiya Pratidin, of which Parag Kumar Das was the executive editor at the time of his murder, has alleged that the CBI was trying to protect a number of persons instead of indicting them. They, according to the newspaper, include the then Guwahati City SP RM Singh too. Singh, it may be recalled, had proceeded on leave soon after Das was murdered.