RI for senior police officials on charges of assault

Guwahati, May 10 (UNI) At the backdrop of the fake encounter whiffs on security forces in various corners of the country, a sessions court today awarded three-year rigorous imprisonment to a deputy superintendent of police and an inspector for assaulting and detaining a man nine years back.

Official sources said DSP Goutam Bora, who is now posted at the GRP, Guwahati, and inspector Prabin Tamuly were found guilty by the Tinsukia sessions court of arresting and severely assaulting a man in 1998.

At the time of the incident, Mr Bora was posted as the officer in charge at Tinsukia police station, while Mr Tamuly was his sub-inspector.

In an FIR filed at Tinsukia police station on March 31, 1998, one Jamuna Devi stated that the police had picked up her husband, Narayan Choudhury, in connection with a robbery incident.

''The police assaulted him, broke his hands and detained him for several days. The police also fudged that arms were recovered from my husbands possession,'' Ms Jamuna, a resident of Sripuria in the heart of Tinsukia, said in the FIR.

The incident took place on March 21, 1998.

The sessions judge today found the police officials guilty under sections 331 and 334 of the IPC, and awarded three-year RI to them along with a fine of Rs 25,000.

While granting a month's time for the accused to appeal in the high court, the court ruled that in the event of failure to pay the fine, the imprisonment would be increased to another six months.

UNI