Guwahati: At least sixty-six accused were killed and 158 others injured in police custody after Himanta Biswa Sarma became the chief minister of Assam in May 2021, the assembly was told on Monday.

This was revealed by Assam Chief Minister Sarma, who also holds the home department, in a written reply to a question in the Assembly by AIUDF MLA Ashraful Hussain.

Assam CM said in a written reply to a query by AIUDF MLA Ashraful Hussain, “35 accused were killed and 12 others were injured in gunfights with the police between May 10, 2021 and February 28, 2023.

As many as 26 people were killed and 146 others injured in police firing, he added.

Sarma further added that five accused were killed in an accident when they tried to flee from police custody.

 During the budget session of the Assam Legislative Assembly AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam asked why the police force has become “so inefficient” that every time an accused flees, they are shot dead.

The cases of Kenaram Basumatary and Kirti Kamal Bora prove that fake encounters are going on in Assam, Aminul said.

He further added that the governor should know this.

A CID probe into the death of a person, suspected to be a dacoit, in a police encounter on February 24 in Assam’s Udalguri district affirmed that it was a case of “mistaken identity”.

The probe concluded that the deceased was not dacoit Kenaram Boro alias Kenaram Basumatary but a person identified as Dimbeswar Muchahary, who his family asserted was a “small-time farmer” but police claimed he was a “hardened criminal”.

Meanwhile, the student leader Kirti Kamal Bora, who was alleged to have been involved in drug peddling, was injured in police firing on January 22 last year. However, a one-man commission of Paban Kumar Borthakur, the then additional chief secretary, found that police officials involved in the firing were at fault, and Bora was not carrying any drugs at the time of the incident.