The CRPF’s Rajnish Rai had filed an internal report stating that a March 30 encounter in Assam’s Chirang district was “staged”.
Representative image. Credit: PTI
The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) inspector general Rajnish Rai, who in April requested a probe into the death of two men in Assam – who he alleged had been killed in a fake encounter conducted by the CRPF, the Assam police and the Sashastra Seema Bal – has been transferred out of the Northeast, Indian Express reported.
In his internal report, Rai, who was posted in Shillong and has now been asked to join the Counter Insurgency and Anti Terrorism (CIAT) School of the CRPF in Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh, termed the March 30 encounter in Assam’s Chirang district as “staged”.
His transfer, which has come even as the home affairs ministry has decided to probe the incident, has raised several questions.
Rajnish Rai. Courtesy: CRPF website
According to Indian Express, the CRPF headquarters on Monday, June 12, informed the Guwahati deputy inspector general that IPS officer Prakash D., who had joined the force that day on deputation, would arrive for a “familiarisation programme” at the state capital on Tuesday.
However, on the officer’s arrival, transfer orders dated June 12 were sent to Rai. The order stated that Prakash, who was appointed as the IG (communication and IT) would also hold the charge of Rai’s post with immediate affect.
Both orders – Prakash’s arrival in Guwahati and Rai’s transfer – were issued on the same day.
Last month, The Wire reported that according to Rai, two men, Lucas Narzary alias N. Langfa and David Islary alias Dayud, were picked up from a house in D-Kalling village and were killed in Simlaguri village under the district’s Amguri police station.
Rai’s report, published in the Indian Express on May 24, stated that “discreet” enquiries by senior officers found that the weapons found from the spot – an Insas Rifle with ten rounds of ammunition, one 7.65 revolver with three rounds of ammunition and one Chinese grenade – were planted on their bodies.
In his report, Rai claimed that GPS records showed that a CRPF unit of CoBRA had visited the encounter spot a few hours before the incident and expressed “suspicion” that the team was trying to identify a location for the “encounter”.
“It leads to the suspicion that the CoBRA team was trying to identify a suitable location where the alleged encounter could be stage managed,” he had said.
Rai also cited statements from witnesses who identified the bodies of the two men and confirmed that they were picked up from D-Kalling village.
(With PTI inputs)