Dhula minor death case: Sr APS officer Raj Mohan Ray dismissed from service, disqualified for future appointment
The Assam government has dismissed the service of senior APS officer and then superintendent of police (SP) Raj Mohan Ray and disqualified him for future employment with immediate effect.
The state home department issued the formal order in this regard on April 1.
“In pursuance of the policy of zero tolerance towards malpractices in @assampolice, Sri Raj Mohan Ray APS, the then superintendent of police Darrang, has been awarded the penalty of “dismissal from service, which shall ordinarily be a disqualification for future employment” on April 1, 2024,” Assam director general of police) GP Singh posted on X on Saturday.
Raj Mohan Ray was chargesheeted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on July 18, 2023, along with additional superintendent of police (ASP) Rupam Phukan in connection with the June 11, 2022, case of rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl under the jurisdiction of Dhula police station in Darrang district.
The chargesheet also named then officer-in-charge of Dhula police station sub-inspector (SI) Utpal Borah and another accused Niju Nath wife of Krishna Kamal Baruah.
The minor girl hailing from Prajapathar village under Dhekiajuli police station in Sonitpur district, who was engaged as domestic help at the residence of one Krishna Kamal Barua of Dhula area in Darrang district, was found dead under mysterious circumstances on June 11, 2022.
Following the allegation that the police displayed extreme dereliction of duty in proving the case, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the victim’s family and ordered a CID probe on August 12, 2022, and suspension of Darrang SP, Addl SP, and OC of Dhula PS for their alleged negligence in investigating the case.
Accordingly, the case was transferred from Dhula police station to the CID vide case No 114.22 under section 354/354(A)/302/201/511 read with section 9(P)/10 of the POCSO Act.
During the investigation, it was revealed that a sum of Rs 5 lakh was accepted from the family of the accused Krishna Kamal Baruah by SI Utpal Borah for himself and other senior police officials
It was also found that the three police officials had failed to perform their lawful duty as additional SP in charge of crime in the district and tried to screen the accused person who had murdered and molested the minor girl.
Accordingly, the CID had registered a fresh case No 20/2022 under section 120(B) of IPV read with section 7(b)/8(1)/(ii) of the PC Act and Section 98 of Assam Police Act, 2007 against the police officers and the private person in connection with the case.
Three officers were arrested for offences of bribery and violations of provisions of the Assam Police Act, 2007.
Investigation revealed that SI Utpal Borah accepted illegal gratification of Rs 5 lakh in three instalments during June and July 2022 for himself and the SP and additional SP of Darrng district. During the investigation, the bank account details from where the money was withdrawn, and persons who withdrew the money and paid to SI Utpal Borah were also gathered.
The call details records, call link analysis, and geo tower analysis of all the mobile numbers along with the mappings of the travel history was conducted and it was proved that the bribe amount was paid in three instalments as a reward for extending undue favours to the accused Krishna Kamal Baruah, who is the main accused of the original Dhula police station case. Niju Nath, who had mobilized the bribe amount of Rs 5 lakh and paid the same through her relatives to SI Utpal Borah.
Further telephone conversation between SP Ram Mohan Ray and SI Ytpal Borah was also retrieved from the mobile phone of the accused and the recorded conversation was compared with the specimen voice samples of the accused.
The FSL voice spectrography report has matched with the specimen voice samples of SI Utpal Borah and SP Ram Mohan Ray.
It was revealed that SP Ram Mohan Ray was instructing SI Utpal Borahto to extend favour to the accused. All these police officers willfully violated the provisions of the Assam Police Act, 2007 and extended undue favour to the accused and tried to screen and protest the accused Krishna Kamal Baruah who was involved in the murder and attempt to rape of the minor girl and obtained bribe money as a reward.
The investigation also revealed that SI Utpal Borah had reformatted his mobile phone to erase some of the evidence as certified by the FSL experts and hence caused the disappearance of evidence.
After obtaining prosecution sanction from the state home department, the chargesheet has been filed against the three police officers for offences of criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence, and public servant accepting bribe in the court of the Special Judge, Guwahati.
The judgement of the case is yet to be passed by the court.
On the other hand, the departmental proceeding against additional SP Rupam Phukan and OC Ujjal Borah is yet to be finalised.
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