The Assam government on Wednesday transferred Nagaon SP Anand Mishra hours after he addressed a press conference regarding an anti-narcotics operation in which a student leader was shot in the leg. Mishra, while admitting that police may have used “excessive force”, maintained that the student leader in question was “not innocent”.
“I was in quarantine; had I been there, I wouldn’t have ordered this,” Mishra said. A police officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, he is to be attached with the police headquarters at Guwahati. This is being dubbed a “first-of-its-kind” transfer after chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the state police launched their drive against drugs and cartels.
Kirti Kamal Bora, a former student leader of Nagaon, is now recuperating from the bullet injury in his lower limb. Nagaon police had fired at the 22-year-old during an anti-drug operation on the evening of January 22. Moments after the incident, Kirti’s family and friends alleged that he had been framed as he was out to fetch medicine for his mother.
Soon, protests against the police action turned into a movement against the “trigger-happy” Nagaon police, who maintained that the student leader was involved in a drug racket and police had evidence against him.
With mounting pressure from political parties and student bodies of Assam, who were seeking an inquiry into the shootout, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma formed a one-man panel on January 23. The committee had additional chief secretary Pawan Borthakur probing the incident.
“The state government has accepted recommendations made in the report, and is issuing directions based on them,” said an Assam government release on February 8. Borthakur’s report said police should conduct a departmental inquiry into the role of all police personnel involved and to immediately disband the anti-narcotic squad formed by Mishra.
Additionally, cases against sub-inspector Pradeep Bania and Nilkamal Bora, who were present at the spot, should be transferred to the criminal investigation department, the report stated. The safety and security of witnesses in the case should also be taken care of, the report added.
The state government had earlier asked the Assam director general of police to suspend Bania, who was in the thick of action. “Justice always prevails and I am happy with the state government’s decision. I thank Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and the DGP for the prompt action. I have no connection with the drug peddler Zakir Hussain as the SP mentioned in his press address. I am innocent and have been framed,” said Kirti.
On February 8, the state government also filed a detailed affidavit on the police encounters as ordered by Gauhati High Court on January 11. The government told the court that 28 people had been killed and 73 others injured in police action from May 10, 2021 (when Sarma took charge) till January 2022.
“Police should limit itself to policing and be patient in a trying situation. Police should be stern against criminal and not public. No one should negate an inquiring report,” said Sarma on Mishra’s transfer.
After his successful stint against cattle smuggling in the Assam-Bangladesh district of Dhubri, Mishra was transferred to Nagaon in 2021. Right after assuming charge of Nagaon, he formed the anti-narcotic squad. Zainal Abedin, accused of running Dhing’s drug mafia and committing several robberies, was shot dead in another anti-narcotic operation.
The squad was then able to nab over 50 drug mafias as well as more than 300 drug traffickers. Mishra also arrested most-wanted criminal Ifu alias Abdul Bhasset. Ifu, who was on the most-wanted list of Nagaon police for close to five years, was also arrested by the anti-narcotic squad.
While posted in Meghalaya, Mishra achieved massive success in an anti-insurgency operation against militant outfit GNLA. In his tenure, there were 32 encounters in Nagaon district alone in which four criminals were killed and drugs worth Rs 73 crore was seized.
A total of 655 police encounter killings were reported from across the country in the last five years, Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai told parliament on February 8.
According to the ministry of home affairs, between January 1, 2017, and January 31, 2022, 191 “encounter killings” were reported from Chhattisgarh, followed by Uttar Pradesh (117), Assam (50), Jharkhand (49), Odisha (36), Jammu and Kashmir (35), Maharashtra (26), Bihar (22), Haryana (15) and Tamil Nadu (14).
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