Police Officers Among 9 Arrested In Assam After Businessman Alleges Extortion, Threat Of Dubbing Him As Terrorist

The incident has happened in Assam’s Bajali district after Rabiul Islam, the businessman, alleged he was wrongfully detained by police and told to pay Rs 2.5 crore, failing which he would be killed in an encounter and his killing would be justified by concocting “links with Pakistani and Bangladeshi jihadi elements,” reported The Indian Express.?

The report said the threats were made by a man who claimed to be an “encounter specialist”.

“On Monday, the Assam Police arrested Siddhartha Buragohan, a 2014 batch IPS officer who had been Bajali Superintendent of Police before being transferred two days ago to Assam Police Headquarters. Deputy Superintendent of Police (HQ) Pushkal Gogoi, Additional Superintendent of Police Gayatri Sonowal, her husband Subhas Chander, Sub-Inspector Debajit Giri, and constable Injamamul Hassan were also arrested. The three others arrested were one Kishore Baruah, and police drivers Nabir Ahmed and Dipjoy Kalita,” the report mentioned.

The report said on August 31, based on a complaint by the businessman Islam, the Assam CID registered an FIR under multiple IPC sections, including those pertaining to attempt to murder, causing fear of death for extortion, criminal intimidation, wrongful confinement and criminal conspiracy.?

It said the six accused named in the FIR were Buragohain, Sonowal, Gogoi, Giri, and two other police personnel – Arnab Jyoti Patir, officer in charge of Patacharkuchi police station, and Sasanka Das, an ASI from Bhabanipur outpost.

The businessman, the report mentioned had also alleged that the intimidation began on July 16 when police personnel stormed into his family home at around 1.30 am, dragged him out and began asking him about “drugs and cash”, which he said he knew nothing about.

He said in the complaint that police officers then punched and kicked him “for at least two to three hours”, searched his house without a warrant, and took a number of belongings, the report said.

It added then, they took him and two of his relatives to the Bhabanipur police station where they were detained.

“Around noon the next day, he (businessman) alleged, he was taken to the SP’s residence where the SP interrogated him on where he had kept the ‘illegal articles’. In the course of the interrogation, he was allegedly assaulted multiple times by the police officer. After that, he was taken back to the police station where he was assaulted multiple times again and told to ‘cooperate’, the report mentioned the allegations of the businessman.

Police also allegedly searched both his office and his father-in-law’s home that day, the report mentioned.

It added late that night, the officer in charge of Bhabanipur police station put him inside a vehicle in which there also were two persons in civilian clothes and one in police uniform, he said in the complaint, adding that he was then taken to a detergent factory.

“When he refused to do that, he alleged, the person ‘took out one hand gun and tried to shoot me and demanded an amount of Rs 2.5 crore from me. He told me that he is an encounter specialist and if I do not pay the said amount, he will kill me and the police will show it is an encounter by showing that I have links with Pakistani and Bangladeshi jihadi elements”, the report quoted the businessman’s complaint.