The Gauhati High Court held that the killing of cultivator a Kokrajhar man in a joint police-Army ambush near Bismuri outpost on 28 December 2016 was an avoidable encounter infringing Article 21. While stopping short of calling the ambush staged, the Court found laxity on intelligence inputs and a sudden, hurried, undocumented ambush that created the exchange of fire in which the deceased was shot. As palliative relief, without prejudice to other remedies, it directed the Union of India and the State of Assam to pay Rs 5,00,000 each to the widow (Rs 10,00,000) and Rs 2,50,000 each to every surviving child (Rs 5,00,000 per child), within one month. Matters not addressed in the cited judgment text are not recorded here.
This page documents a court-adjudicated case from the judgment and cited sources below. Findings are attributed to the court; this record does not add findings of its own.
How verification works →By judgment dated 8 January 2026 in WP(C)/1098/2017, the Gauhati High Court (Coram: Kalyan Rai Surana, Rajesh Mazumdar, JJ.) returned findings adverse to the accused police personnel, and directed payment of compensation of Rs 25 lakh (Rs 25,00,000).
Compiled from the judgment and the cited sources. Findings are those of the court; this card adds none of its own.
Judgment dated 8 January 2026. This judgment may still be subject to appeal; initiation or pendency of an appeal is not a finding.
Reliable material supports a specifically documented fact relevant to that allegation, not necessarily the full allegation, causation, intent, unlawfulness, or responsibility.
Official finding: supports allegation.
Holding not recorded separately.
“The laxity displayed while acting on the intelligence inputs and the sudden and hurried decision to lay an undocumented ambush played a vital role in creating a situation which led to exchange of fire between the deceased and the police, …” (para 33)
The Gauhati High Court recorded adverse findings against police personnel and ordered Rs 2,500,000.
(Round-8 full re-verification: published record re-checked against the judgment text (outcome, officers, quote, key facts) plus methodology-compliance pass; skills-guided adversarial re-verification of the published record against the judgment text (reverify/t1-*/adversarial-8.jsonl))
Corrections (0): No corrections recorded.
Review: Solo Staff combined review (one combined attestation) — not yet recorded.
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