Gauhati High Court Directs State To Preserve Bodies Of 'Hmar Militants' Killed In Contentious Encounter By Assam Police

The Gauhati High Court recently directed the State of Assam to expedite the report of chemical analysis and to prepare the final report of the cause of death of three suspected Hmar militants, allegedly killed on July 17 in an extrajudicial execution by Assam Police.

The division bench of Justice Kalyan Rai Surana and Justice Soumitra Saikia further directed the State to preserve the dead bodies of three deceased persons till August 02.

On July 17, abovementioned three men were killed by Assam police in a fierce encounter in Cachar district.

Deceased were arrested by the Assam Police on July 16. It is alleged that the trio was taken out from Kachudharam Police Station in the early hours of July 17 and was killed in extrajudicial execution. Counsel appearing for the petitioners urged that the post-mortem of all three dead bodies be conducted by doctors from outside Assam.

The Advocate General for Assam produced the post-mortem report of the three deceased persons in a sealed cover before the Court.

“…the Court is of the view that since in the postmortem report the opinion regarding the cause of death is kept pending till receipt of the chemical analysis report of viscera from Directorate of Forensic Science (DFS), Assam, Kahilipara, it will be appropriate to direct the State to expedite the report of the chemical analysis and to prepare the final report of the cause of death so that the State respondents can file their affidavit-in-opposition along with a copy of the postmortem report,” the Court said.

It has asked the State to file the affidavit-in-opposition by August 01.

The matter is listed again on August 02.

Case Title: Siemthang Hmar & 2 Ors. v. The State of Assam & 6 Ors.

Case No.: W.P. (Crl.)/23/2024