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| File picture of security personnel in Lakhipur |
Guwahati, Jan 9 : The Justice (retd) P.G. Agarwal commission of inquiry that probed the circumstances leading to the Lakhipur police firing in which nine persons were killed on January 2 last year has virtually given a clean chit to police. However, it has recommended that training be given to cops on quelling riots and dealing with the crowd.
The report, running into nearly 80 pages, was submitted to the government in November but is yet to be placed in the Assembly.
Eighty-four persons were examined by the commission set up on February 5 last year.
Sources in the chief minister’s office (CMO) dropped broad hints that the commission of inquiry had justified the police action against the supporters of the three-day bandh that began on January 2 last year.
Utpalananda Sharma was the deputy commissioner and Abhijit Bora the superintendent of police at that time. The firing at Lakhipur Bazar led to the firing near the police station.
Sources claimed that security personnel and officials present there had to fire to prevent the mob from reaching Lakhipur police station and free a member of the bandh sponsors — the Non-Rabha Co-ordination Forum and the Non-Tribal Protection Forum — lodged there.
The commission found that the crowd was more or less organised, were throwing stones, indulging in violence and clashing with families in the neighbourhood, the sources said. It did not disperse even after being baton-charged, they added.
The commission, however, has made several recommendations that also bring to the fore the inadequacy of the police force in dealing with a violent mob.
Time and again in the last couple of years, the police had to resort to firing to control irate crowds, the sources pointed out.
The commission examined the post-mortem reports of the deceased.
It recommended modernisation of the police force, delegating more powers to the police during crisis situations, widening of roads in Lakhipur town for easy access to the area, rescue operations during times of manmade or natural disasters and shifting of the bus stop.
In his deposition, Salim Sikdar, the arrested non-Rabha leader who was lodged in the police station that day, had accused the police of “inhuman torture”.
He refused to leave the police station even after he was asked to go as he was not formally released.