How the murder of domestic help in Assam led to the arrest of an SP and a magistrate

A spine-chilling murder of a minor domestic help in Assam’s Dhula under Darrang district and subsequent attempt of a cover-up has resulted in the arrest of three senior police officers, one executive magistrate and three doctors for their alleged involvement in misleading the probe.

The investigation into the murder, which was earlier concluded to be a case of suicide, turned on its head after Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had directed the police department to constitute a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) for a thorough investigation into the incident.

The Crime Investigation Department (CID) of Assam, which took charge of the case after the CM’s intervention, found that the police officials, the magistrate and the doctors were trying to shield the accused, Krishna Kamal Baruah, an SSB Jawan, who had allegedly raped and murdered his 13-year-old domestic help.

Till now the CID has arrested Rajmohan Roy, Darrang district superintendent of police (SP), Rupam Phukan, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Darrang, Sub-Inspector Utpal Bora, Officer-in-Charge of Dhula police station, Ashirbad Hazarika, Executive Magistrate of the Dalgaon Revenue Circle, and three doctors of Mangaldai Civil Hospital—Arun Chandra Deka, Ajanta Bordoloi and Anupam Sharma. All three police officers were earlier suspended. Roy and Hazarika surrendered at the CID office in Guwahati on November 10 while the others were arrested earlier.

The victim, a minor tribal girl, who had been working as a domestic help, was found hanging in the house of her employer Baruah in June.  Baruah, the main accused, was arrested by police initially but the victim's family alleged that the police were unwilling to investigate the matter properly. They also alleged that the OC Bora even had put pressure on them to not file a complaint over the death. As per the case registered at the Dhula police station, the police and the accused claimed that the girl had committed suicide (by hanging) and her body was buried after conducting a post-mortem.

However, following the family's repeated allegations, hue and cry, Assam CM Sarma along with DGP Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta visited the victim's family in August and directed that the case be investigated under an SIT. Accordingly, the case was transferred to the CID on August 12. The probe found evidence of sexual assault, murder and destruction of evidence. The CID exhumed the body of the deceased, got a second post-mortem conducted, consulted a panel of forensic medical experts, and conducted the DNA profiling of the main accused which matched with the fluids on the clothes of the victim girl. 

The CID probe also found that the police did not take any videography and fingerprints while the body was laid down. On the other hand, Executive Magistrate Hazarika pronounced that the minor girl had died by suicide even without visiting the incident site.

While the first post-mortem, conducted by the three arrested doctors, said there were “no injuries except the ligature mark”, the second one, done by a high-level medical team comprising of doctors of the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), AIIMS and NEIGRIHMS, found “continuations on the skull and the neck” and concluded that the death was “due to homicidal strangulation and not suicide”. A detailed charge sheet was filed on September 25 against the main accused Baruah and several others.

The bank account statement of the main accused family, the call detail records (CDR), tower location, travel history analysis and examination of all the relevant witnesses, have revealed that the three police officials received bribe from the accused—Bora Rs 5 lakh, Phukan Rs 1.5 lakh and Ray Rs 2 lakh.

Meanwhile, the main accused Baruah is in judicial custody.