Guwahati: The police exhumed the remains on the request of Dimbeswar Musahari’s family, who had previously asserted mistaken identity in the case, almost four days after the Udalguri encounter.
The body was exhumed in front of the magistrate on Monday night in the Orang village of Natun Panbari.
A case of mistaken identity involving the death of seasoned criminal Kenaram Basumutary in a police shootout on February 24 in Assam’s Udalguri was refuted by the Assam police earlier on Sunday.
The Udalguri police carried out the encounter when they attempted to apprehend Kenaram, who was a prime accused in a number of armed robbery crimes with a similar method of operation.
According to a police report, on February 24 at around 10.30 AM, two people riding a motorcycle without a licence plate arrived at the location. One of the suspects approached the police team while attempting to rob them and discharged a 7.65 mm pistol at them, seriously wounding a police sub-inspector and a constable.
“In a self-defence, the police team retaliated and as a result one of the accused sustained a bullet injury. When the police rushed to him, a 7.65 mm pistol, 2 rounds of 7.65 live ammunition, one bullet head and one empty case were found. The second individual fled the scene in the motorbike”, the statement reads.
The accused and injured police were taken to the closest hospital, but the accused was later pronounced dead, according to the police statement.
According to a police official, the relatives of the deceased, Kenaram Basumutary, came in, positively identified the body, and claimed it.
However, the official said that after the inquest and post mortem were carried out according to protocol, the body was given over with a written receipt of the deceased’s mother in the presence of two witnesses.
“His last rites were conducted in village Natun Panbari, Orang on Friday late evening by his family”, the police added in the statement.
Notably, the decedent was identified as Muchahary rather than Kenaram by the family of veteran criminal Dimbeshwar Muchahary alias Gobla.
According to the authorities, Muchahary was detained at the Rangia Police Station in connection with armed robberies. At the moment, his home yielded one pistol and one round of 9 millimetre ammo. He was the subject of an absconder chargesheet at the time. Kenaram Basumutary has also been identified as an evader and a part of the same gang in the chargesheet of Gobardhan PS.
However, the family of Dimbeshwar Muchahary has written for the exhumation of the body under the Magistrate. “We have forwarded the written request and with the receipt of a positive magisterial order, the exhumation may be conducted. Following this on receipt of a Court order, DNA profiling may be done to verify the claim regarding the identity of the deceased,” the police statement claimed.
“Kenaram Basumutary was a surrendered NDFB cadre, is a veteran criminal from village Natun Panbari, Orang, Udalguri. He was the prime accused in several armed robbery cases of similar modus operandi including armed dacoity at Nalbari PS (Assam), armed robbery and firing at police team of Roing PS (Arunachal Pradesh) and in armed robbery of petrol pump at Khleriat PS (Meghalaya). He has been arrested in several cases leading to recovery of cash proceeds of crime and arms,” the statement added further.