A man killed in a gunfight with the Assam Police last month was a farmer and not a dacoit, the state Criminal Investigation Department has found.
The gunfight had taken place in the Udalguri district on February 24. The police had claimed that two men had fired at them, and the officials had fired in retaliation, according to The Times of India.
The police had at the time claimed that a dacoit named Kenaram Basumatary was killed in the firing, while his accomplice managed to flee. The man’s body was handed over Basumatary’s family, which carried out his last rites.
However, a day later, another family claimed that the person who died was not Kenaram Basumatary, but a man named Dimbeshwar Muchahary.
Following the claims, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that while the police fired in retaliation, there may have been a mistake in identifying the man who died.
The Criminal Investigation Department, which was tasked with investigating the matter, exhumed the body and carried out a DNA analysis. It found that the dead man was Muchahary.
“Accordingly, the dead body has been handed over to the family members of the deceased after following the...formalities,” the department said in a press note.
The police, however, claimed that Muchahary also had criminal records, according to The Times of India.
The Assam Police have accused Basumatary of involvement in several cases of armed robbery and a case in which he allegedly fired at a police team from Arunachal Pradesh, according to East Mojo.
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