The police in Assam’s Goalpara district gunned down two alleged dacoits and injured another after a high-speed car chase on Saturday night, officials informed on Sunday.
According to officials, the incident took place in Goalpara town around 10:30 pm during curfew hours imposed as part of Covid-19 restrictions. A search is on for two more persons who escaped.
“Sometimes criminals think they can outgun, outrun and outsmart Assam Police. That happened at Goalpara yesterday. Goalpara police had to chase criminals across the area of four police stations, while being shot at. But, finally the police got the better of them,” Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta tweeted.
“Two of the dacoits, Rafajuddin and Basit Ali, died in the shootout while one Rashidul Islam has been injured. All of them have prior cases of dacoity against them. One gun and the car they were travelling in have been recovered,” he added.
Giving details of the incident, Additional Superintendent of Police Goalpara district Mrinal Deka said that the police got information that a few people involved in cases of highway robberies and dacoities were moving about in a car during curfew hours.
“Our team managed to intercept them at Dudhnoi, but they fled. They took the route towards Goalpara town via Matia and Monoi. After the chase, our team stopped them at Goalpara,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“Our team managed to intercept them at Dudhnoi, but they fled. They took the route towards Goalpara town via Matia and Monoi. After the chase, our team stopped them at Goalpara,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“They kept on shooting at our team and our personnel responded. While one dacoit died on the spot, the body of another was recovered on Sunday morning. The third person who sustained a bullet injury on his right hand is admitted at Goalpara civil hospital. Search is on for two others who fled,” Deka added.
There has been a steady rise in police encounters in Assam since May this year after the BJP-led government started a zero-tolerance policy against drugs, cattle smuggling and other heinous crimes.
With Saturday’s incident, the number of those killed in such encounters rose to 22. At least 34 others have been injured in other such incidents across the state.
While opposition parties have accused the police of being ‘trigger-happy’, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who handles the home portfolio, has urged police not to shy away from firing back at criminals while remaining within the ambit of law.