I know there is God is up there and he will give us justice someday. God has come in the shape of the CBI and the main culprit, the man who murdered my son has been ultimately caught,” says 70-year old Silonti Topno.Topno’s son Daniel was killed on the night of September 27, 2000, on his way home from the local Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) office.His friend recollects his last moments. “We chatted for about an hour in the local AGP office about politics and then went around Gohpur town on our bicycles. Around 8:30 p.m., I headed for my village while Daniel went towards his village Chatrang. Later around midnight I was told that Daniel had been murdered,” says Narayan Gour, a social worker and Daniel’s friend.Bora attributed his defeat in a 1996 assembly election to Daniel and allegedly murdered him. But three days after the murder, the police claimed to have identified the killers. They pinned the crime on Kanak Ali, a known criminal of a neighbouring town. In October they also picked up two local Congress workers—Bodheswar Das and Bakul Tamuli—for interrogation. Later the police also arrested Uma Kanta Mizar also known as Kale Mizar but all three were soon released on bail. “I have seen Bodheswar Das moving around freely in Gohpur but no one has seen the other two, Bakul Tamuli and Uma Kanta Mizar, for long now,” Gour said.“There is no doubt that Ripun Bora was behind Daniel’s murder,” says Gour, who also comes from the same community of tea garden workers as Daniel. “Everybody here knows Daniel was killed by Ripun Bora. But nobody dares to say it openly since Bora is so powerful,” said Gour.But Daniel’s younger brother Santosh did not give up the fight. Santosh, who is currently posted as a havildar in Arunachal Pradesh Police, approached the Gauhati High Court in December 2001 with the complaint that the police was not doing enough to crack the case. He pleaded that the investigation be handed over to the CBI.Meanwhile, Bora, who was then the spokesman of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee and a prospective Congress aspirant for Gohpur LAC, too demanded a CBI probe. But once the Congress was elected to power in the 2001 assembly elections— Bora too won from Gohpur—the government asked the CID and not the CBI to probe the case. The CID carried out an investigation and submitted its chargesheet in 2004. The chargesheet did not have Bora’s name—by then he had become minister of state.Daniel’s brother, meanwhile, continued to appeal to the court. Finally, in May 2005, the court ordered the state government to hand over the case to the CBI.The Congress government, however, almost immediately filed a review petition saying that since the CID had already completed its investigation, there was no need for a CBI probe. The Gauhati High Court, however, turned down the Assam government’s plea and in July 2005 gave another order directing the state government to hand over the case to the CBI.The investigating agency’s arrest of Bora has brought some relief to Daniel’s family. “Bora’s arrest has brought some hope to us,” says Daniel’s mother Silonti Topno. “My son was brilliant, courageous and very helpful. I still have faith in God. He will give us justice one day. But as a mother I cannot forgive my son’s murderers,” she says.
