• Assam police files charge sheet on Santosh Hojai abduction, murder case

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    Assam police files charge sheet on Santosh Hojai abduction, murder case

    On the 24th of April 2020, Santosh Hojai was abducted by five men in plain clothes from his house at Damadi Hawar under Harangajao police station amid strict Covid lockdown in the entire nation. His spouse Jayanta Hojai proceeded to file an FIR, but interestingly the Police station officer in charge, Sub Inspector Angshu Rajkumar refused to register the missing complaint, saying that her husband will return home by the next day.





    Two days later, when Hojai didn’t return home after assurance from the O/C, locals of the nearby area protested against the officer in charge and finally registered the complaint.





    After six consecutive days, Hojai’s decomposed and partly burnt body was found buried near NH 27,100km away from his home at Lailing reserve forest under Langting police station in Dima Hasao district.





    Later the body was exhumed in presence of an executive magistrate. Subsequently, his wife filed a petition in the high court on April 28, 2020, two days before his body was found, seeking a directive to the police to expedite the search.





    Following the recovery of the body Hojai’s wife had filed an affidavit at Guwahati HC and the court ordered an SIT under DIG (SR) and remanded Kanchan Naiding, a cadre of Dimasa National Liberation Army (DNLA) for three days for interrogation in link with the case.





    Meanwhile, a CCTV footage of the then DSP, Surya Kanta Morang, and other police personnel surfaced on social media buying fuel in a jerry-can from Maibang oil depot to which Hojai’s wife has alleged the identification of the DSP to have come to her house and abducted her husband triggering a series of protest against the police administration.





    However, the DSP has been transferred to another district. After new SP Jayant Singh took charge in the district the P.S Officer in Incharge SI Angshu Rajkumar was suspended for his negligence and not registering the F.I.R.





    In June 2020 the HC ordered the Assam DGP to entrust CID into the investigation and withdraw the SIT, in November 2020, the CID arrested two police constables who were involved in the case and recorded their statements.





    In the recent development of the case, Assam police CID had filed a charge sheet on the abduction and murder case of late Santosh Hojai and submitted it before the Guwahati High court. The involvement of seven police personnel and one civilian including the prime accused SP Bir Bikram Gogoi and his deputy Surya Kanta Morang are mentioned in the charge sheet.
    Four police constables and one Sub Inspector of police have been named in the charge sheet beside one DNLA militant Greckson Hojai alias Alvin Hojai alias Elvin Hojai alias Chalgori. Two police constables were arrested by the CID in November 2020 while Alvin Hojai was arrested at Dimapur in Nagaland on 19 April 2021, meanwhile, the rest of the accused police personnel are under anticipatory bail.





    It has been revealed during investigation that on 24/04/2020 Santosh Hojai was picked up in white Bolero at gunpoint by the accused and proceeded towards Haflong. He was later handed over to the then Deputy Superintendent of Police Surya Kanta Morang and taken to the office of SP, Dima Hasao on his Scorpio Vehicle and interrogated and tortured him.





    After successfully completing the case, Advocate Thaosen thanked Gauhati High court for monitoring the matter without which the investigation might not have got its final shape and the same to the Criminal Investigation Department, Assam for properly investigating the matter and eventually filing the charge-sheet against those involved in the crime.