Guwahati: Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia on Monday demanded a judicial enquiry into the entire Batadrava arson incident.

This comes after Ashiqul Islam, an accused in the sensational Batadrava arson case died in a road accident in the Raidangiya area of Nagaon on Sunday night.

Speaking about the same, Saikia said, “It is very unfortunate that such things are happening frequently in the custody of Assam police and this is the second such incident in the last 10 days. So we demand a judicial enquiry to the whole Batadrava incident.”

Saikia also stated that it is also surprising and shameful that the Assam police are not being able to keep in proper custody of the accused persons.

“We have seen many accused die in a police encounters while they are being taken for identification of location or scene of crime etc. Sometimes, I wonder whether there is an anti-Assam element in Assam police who try to prevent the investigation process, as with the death of the accused persons many truths may not come out and as a result we may not be able to unearth the details of how some elements are working against the interests of Assam,” added Debabrata Saikia.

Similarly, Dhing MLA Aminul Islam also demanded a judicial enquiry into the entire incident.

In a video, MLA Aminul Islam said, “The sudden accidental death of the accused on Sunday seems to very suspicious. A similar incident was reported earlier during the death of accused Neeraj Das alias Kola lora in the Animesh Bhuyan Murder Case. From last one year, we have been hearing that when the accused makes attempt to flee police custody and they are being shot at, however, this was never reported earlier. If Ashiqul Islam, the accused was the mastermind in the Batadrava incident, then I urged a judicial enquiry into the incident under the supervision of a justice of the High court.”

Notably, a day earlier, Ashiqul Islam surrendered before the Nagaon police, following which he was taken into police custody.

According to the Nagaon Superintendent of Police, Leena Doley, during the interrogation, Ashiqul Islam had confessed that he had kept illegal firearms in his home. “Our team went to his home and recovered one 7.62 mm pistol, one .22 pistol, seven rounds of live bullets and a mobile phone. We also recovered the red t-shirt which he wore on the day of the Batadrava incident. While returning back to the police station, Islam made an attempt to escape by jumping out of the moving vehicle he was in, and then was hit by another police vehicle which lost control. He was injured and was immediately shifted to a hospital where he was declared dead by the doctors,” said SP Leena Doley.