Three weeks after the death of three Hmar youths in Assam's Cachar, the Gauhati High Court asked the families of the deceased to collect the bodies from the morgue.
The bodies have been preserved at the Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) mortuary since July 17.
Notably, the families of the deceased Hmar youths had approached the court demanding that the post-mortem be conducted outside Assam. However, the state government submitted the autopsy report conducted at SMCH before the court.
The prosecution did not object to the report due to which the court asked the families to collect the mortal remains from the SMCH morgue. Additionally, the matter was posted for the next hearing on September 10.
Earlier, the court had directed the police to preserve the bodies till August 7 (today). The court had also directed to government to submit the affidavit within August 2, permitting the family members of the deceased to collect the mortal remains of the three killed Hmar men.
After being accused of extra-judicial killings of the three Hmar tribals, Assam Police had said earlier that police firing was in self-defence against a barrage of bullets rained on a tactical team by strategically positioned militants.
Cachar district superintendent of police Numal Mahatta addressed a press conference saying the police team, accompanying three suspected Hmar militants who were nabbed earlier, was ambushed. A group of militants took cover of a huge tree to open fire on the police team when the police retaliated in self-defence.
Explaining the sequence of events, Mahatta said, "We had inputs of the movement of three armed cadres in the Kachudaram area and that they were trying to enter our district through the bordering regions. Accordingly, a special police team carried out an operation and nabbed three militants travelling in an auto-rickshaw. One of them initially managed to escape, but we tracked him down and caught him. After being extensively grilled, the trio revealed that another group of armed militants were camping an area nearby."
According to the Cachar SP, the militants planned "subversive activities" along the Assam-Manipur border and the police, with that information in hand, could not allow anything to go down. "We will not allow any such activities to disrupt peace in Assam. As per our knowledge, they were members of Hmar terrorist organization and they were highly trained cadres," he said.
Mahatta further said, "Based on the information, a raid was mapped out. Our tactical team reached the foothills of Bhuban Pahar along with the nabbed Hmar trio. There, the team was ambushed by a group of six to seven militants who were heavily armed and strategically positioned behind the wilderness. Accordingly, our team took positions and to ensure the safety of the three people in our custody, we clad them with bullet-proof vests and helmets.
"However, in the ensuing cross-fire, they were hit. Three of our personnel were also injured in the firing. We have transferred the policemen to Silchar Medical College. Meanwhile, the Hmar tribals in our custody were rushed to Sonai PHE and later transferred to SMCH. The attending doctor there declared them dead," added the Cachar SP.
The Hmar Inpui, the apex organization of the Hmar tribe leveled sensational allegations of extra-judicial killings against Assam Police following the death of three Hmars in police custody in an ambush along the Assam-Mizoram border recently.
