Assam: Nagaon SP transferred after comments on student leader shooting

The Assam government on Wednesday transferred Nagaon’s SP, Anand Mishra, following the officer’s comments in connection with last month’s encounter of former student leader Kirti Kamal Bora.

Bora was left injured in the encounter and is currently recuperating at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital. Mishra has been attached with Assam Police Headquarters in Guwahati, according to a government statement late Wednesday. His replacement is yet to be announced.

The transfer comes a day after the state government asked the DGP to suspend sub-inspector Pradeep Bania in connection with the same case.

Bora (22) was shot in the legs by the Nagaon police during an anti-drug operation on January 22, leading to a state-wide furore. While the police alleged that Bora was involved in the drug racket and attacked policemen, his family said he had been “wrongly framed”. The suspension marked the first instance where the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government, under fire for increased police action on alleged criminals, took action against a police officer over an encounter.

A senior government official told The Indian Express that the chief minister was unhappy with the comments made by Mishra during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. “The transfer is related to that…it was found that what he said was not proper, especially because the Assam government had ordered an inquiry into the Nagaon incident,” said the official, who did not want to be name. Mishra’s replacement is yet to be announced.

On January 23, Sarma had announced a one-man inquiry commission, comprising additional chief secretary Pawan Borthakur, to probe the Bora’s injury. “The state government has accepted the recommendations made by the report, and is issuing directions based on them,” stated an Assam government release on Tuesday.

Based on the report, the government had directed the DGP to suspend Bania as well as to conduct a departmental inquiry into the role of all policemen involved in the incident. The DGP was also directed to immediately disband the anti-narcotic squad, constituted by the Nagaon SP Mishra. Additionally, the government said that the two cases against Bania and another policeman Nilkamal Bora, who was also present at the spot, be transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The safety and security of witnesses of the case should also be taken care of, the release said.

Following that Mishra, on Wednesday, addressed the press saying that police may have erred and they would cooperate with the investigation, but Bora was “not innocent” “We may have used excessive force…everyone makes mistakes and we are ready to correct them. But we will never accept that Kirti Kamal Bora was innocent. On the day of the incident, he was involved with a known drug peddler named Zakir Hussain…how can he be innocent?” Mishra had said.

Reacting to the development, Bora’s elder brother Koustav said that though the family “welcomed” the government’s decision, it was “not enough”. “We demand that the officer who shot at him be arrested, not just suspended. Moreover, Nagaon SP Anand Mishra should apologise in public, or at least take back the statements he made in the media saying that my brother was involved in peddling drugs,” said Koustav, earlier on Wednesday, before the SP was transferred.

Meanwhile, the Assam government on Tuesday filed a detailed affidavit on the police encounters, as ordered by Gauhati High Court on January 11. The government informed the court that 28 people have been killed and 73 others injured in police action from May 10 last year (when Sarma took office) till January 28.