The Army on Wednesday admitted that it had carried out an operation in Jorhat,which the Assam Police had described as a robbery,and said the operation did not go as per norms. The Army had landed in a controversy with the police in Jorhat registering a case of robbery at the residence of businessman Surajit Gogoi,with Jorhat SP Sanjukta Parasar claiming that she had clear evidence of the involvement of some Army personnel in the incident. The police had said valuables including three mobile handsets,a licenced pistol and a passport were taken away from the house. We have evidence that one Sandeep Thapa,a havildar in the Armys Intelligence Surveillance Unit under the 3 Corps,had used one of the mobile handsets after the robbery occurred, the Jorhat SP had said. On Wednesday night,a statement sent by e-mail by the Media Officer in the Armys 3 Corps headquarters at Rangapahar in Nagaland said an intelligence-based operation was indeed carried out in Jorhat on December 20-21 based on initial information forwarded by the police, but the same did not go as per norms. The intelligence was credible but the operation did not go as per norms. The Army authorities accepted responsibility for the same and have initiated an internal inquiry to pinpoint responsibility, the e-mailed statement sent by Col C Subramanian said. Jorhat police are in close coordination with Army authorities in Jorhat and Dimapur. All assistance is being provided to facilitate the police inquiry, the Army statement said. Havildar Thapa had called up his parents in Himachal Pradesh at least twice from one of the three stolen mobile phones (No 9706060977),the Jorhat P had said on Monday. The SP,however,said the motive behind the incident could not be ascertained. A case registered in the Jorhat police station (Case No. 922/2011) said a gang of 10 to 12 persons armed with sophisticated weapons arrived in a Maruti Gypsy and a Tata Indica and barged into Gogois house on December 20 midnight,and took away three mobile handsets,a licenced .32 pistol,a passport,Rs 1.5 lakh in cash and other valuables. Gogoi also complained that the gang tied up his wife,two teenaged sons and a daughter and locked them in one room and forcibly took away the items in his absence.
