The Gauhati High Court on Monday issued a notice to the Assam government in a petition on the custodial death of a rape accused in August.
The accused, identified as 24-year-old Tafazul Islam, died in police custody on August 24. Police officers said that he attempted to escape by “jumping” into a pond, The Indian Express had reported quoting police officials.
He was among the three persons accused in the gangrape of a 14-year-old girl in the state’s Nagaon district. The gangrape occurred on August 22.
Nagaon Superintendent of Police Swapnaneel Deka was quoted as saying by The Print at the time that Islam “slipped and fell” into the pond after he pushed a constable and tried to escape. “We tried to rescue him, but couldn’t,” Deka had reportedly said.
On September 10, Islam’s father Abdul Awal filed a petition seeking compensation for his son’s custodial death and punishment for the police officials involved.
Awal alleged that Islam was forcibly picked up on August 23 at around 5 am, and was physically tortured and beaten up while in custody.
On Tuesday, advocate Zunaid Khalid, who is representing Awal, told Scroll that a division bench of Justices Manash Ranjan Pathak and Soumitra Saikia has asked the Assam government to file an affidavit.
The court has listed the matter for the next hearing on November 4.
In his petition, Awal alleged that the postmortem of Islam’s body was done without the family being informed and that it was not videographed.
He also claimed that the police had made the “photograph of a person connected with the aforesaid offence viral in news and various social media platforms and that his son is not the person police was searching in connection with the aforesaid crime”.
The alleged gangrape of the 14-year-old had triggered protests by the locals who called for business establishments to be shut indefinitely until stringent action was taken against the culprits.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that the police will not spare the culprits, adding that he told the director general of police to visit the site and ensure swift justice.
On August 23, Sarma said that after the Lok Sabha elections, in which the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party fell short of majority in the Lower House, a section of society felt emboldened to commit crimes.
Sarma did not clarify which community he was referring to.
Indigenous communities were living in constant fear in regions where they had become a numeric minority, Sarma had claimed. “We should identify the real perpetrators behind these heinous crimes and not be stuck in blaming communities within the Hindu society,” the chief minister had said.
Also read: In BJP rule, 31 killed in Assam’s alleged encounters – most belong to ethnic or religious minorities
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