Death of 5 in Army ‘encounter’: 29 years after, Gauhati HC orders Centre to pay Rs 20 lakh to each family

The five All Assam Students’ Union members were picked up from their homes by Army personnel between February 17 and 19, 1994 after the death of a tea garden manager in Assam’s Tinsukia

The petition in question had been filed in 1994 itself when the young men went missing and the case has been carrying on since. (File)

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TWENTY-NINE years after five young men were killed in an alleged fake encounter by the Army in Assam’s Tinsukia district, the Gauhati High Court Thursday ordered the Centre to pay Rs 20 lakh each as compensation to families of the victims.

The five men—Prabin Sonowal, Pradip Dutta, Debajit Biswas, Akhil Sonowal and Bhupen Moran— were picked up from their homes by Army personnel between February 17 and 19, 1994 after the death of a tea garden manager in Tinsukia. Their bodies were recovered from Dibru Saikhowa Reserve Forest on February 23, 1994. All five men were associated with the All Assam Students’ Union.

The petition in question was filed in 1994 when the young men went missing and the case has been going on since then.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation, which had conducted an inquiry into the killings on the direction of the court, had found seven Army personnel responsible for unlawful killings.

In 2018, seven Armymen, including a Major General, were sentenced to life imprisonment during a court martial in connection with these killings. However, while considering their appeal in 2019, the competent authority in the Army held that the personnel were not guilty.

During the hearing on Thursday, Justice Achintya Malla Bujor Baruah observed that in a nearly 30-year-old matter, it would be favourable to close the case by providing compensation instead of instituting a judicial inquiry to once again try to ascertain the nature of the killings.

“We are of the view that instead of trying to arrive at a definite conclusion as to whether the death was caused in a manner other than acceptable in law, we accept the situation that the death of the aforesaid five persons took place during an Army operation … for the interest of justice, we order the respondents to pay adequate amount of compensation to the families of the five deceased persons,” said Justice Bujor Barua.

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Referring to a 2022 judgement by the Gauhati High Court in another case where persons were killed in an Army operation, the court directed the Union of India through Army authorities to pay a compensatory amount of Rs 20 lakh to each family of the five deceased.

Noting the lapse of time since the incident, Justice Bujor Barua stated, “As over the years a question would remain as to who would be entitled to the compensation in respect of the five deceased persons, we place the matter before the learned District Judge Tinsukia for issuing notices to the families of five deceased persons and ascertain as to who amongst them would be entitled to receive the compensation amount.”

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