Assam riots: CBI files chargesheet against constable

According to the CBI, dismissed constable Mouhibur Islam alias Ratul, who was the president of the All-Bodoland Minority Students’ Union , had accidentally sustained a gunshot injury on July 19, 2012. However, by suppressing the true facts, he allegedly got an FIR registered through his brother, a private person, at Kokrajhar police station in Assam on July 20 against a person of the Bodo community, alleging that person had fired at and injured him.

On Islam’s directions, a bandh call was given for July 20, during which four Bodo youth were lynched and killed. The killings triggered a spate of attacks and counter-attacks across Kokrajhar, Chirang and Baksa districts in the Bodoland Territorial Administered Districts (BTAD) and Dhubri district.

The CBI had taken up the investigation of 8 of these alleged ethnic violence cases in Assam on the request of the state government. The cases were initially registered by the Assam Police.

The alleged acts of the former police official proved detrimental to public order and peace in the area and resulted in large-scale ethnic violence in Assam between two communities, in which a large number of innocent persons were killed and property worth crores of rupees destroyed, the CBI said.

Islam has been charged under IPC sections of giving false information with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person, false charge of offence made with intent to injure, and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race or place of birth.