No Cause for Aggression
Army intelligence operation goes wrong, setting off ripples in wrong places
Army intelligence operation goes wrong, calling into question motive of officers behind it.
Surajit Gogoi, 45, a contractor with the military engineering services in Jorhat, Assam, lives life king- size. A spacious house and a fleet of six cars were visible signs of a prosperity which was not commensurate with his declared annual income of Rs 5.40 lakh. Perhaps that led Army intelligence to suspect his involvement with militants and led to a botched “intelligencebased search operation” that prompted General V. K. Singh, then Army chief, to issue a showcause notice to Lt- Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, in line to become Army chief in 2014.
At around 1 a. m. on December 21, 2011, a team of 15 masked people in Army fatigues swooped down on Surajit’s home at Rowriah in Jorhat when he was away in Guwahati on business. The intruders blindfolded his wife Renu, 35, sons Bitu, 21, and Ashish, 20, and daughter Pallabi, 13, and ransacked the house for half an hour, taking away Rs 1.5 lakh in cash, jewellery worth 5.6 lakh, and Surajit’s .32 pistol, among other things. The traumatised family then called Surajit and the local police from a neighbour’s house.
Surajit filed an FIR at the Jorhat police station later in the day but the first vital clue came three days later when Sandeep Thapa, a havildar at-
THE ARMY DID NOT INVOLVE LOCAL POLICE OR THE VILLAGE HEADMAN IN THE RAID, AS REQUIRED BYTHE ARMED FORCES ( SPECIAL POWERS ACT), 1958.
tached to 3 Corps, called his family using one of Surajit’s phones. On December 28, a police team went to the 3 Corps headquarters at Rangapahar and interrogated Thapa who revealed that the search team was lead by a woman captain, Rubina Kaur Keer. 3 Corps officers handed
over some of Surajit’s items and the same day, Colonel Subramanian C., the media officer, admitted that “the intelligence was credible but the operation did not go as per norms” and announced an internal inquiry.
That the Army did not follow norms is evident from the fact that they did not involve local police or the village headman in the raid, as required by the Armed Forces ( Special Powers Act), 1958. The search team neither prepared any search and seizure list at the location nor did it inform Jorhat police, which has led to serious allegations of robbery against those involved in the raid. The involvement of Nirmal Gogoi, a neighbour of Surajit and an alleged car- jacker, also raises suspicion of robbery. “The intruders kept asking my family about cash,” says Surajit.
The police investigation has made little progress since then and Surajit is yet to get back several of his items. He has sought help from every possible corner— from General V. K. Singh to Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma to the National Human Rights Commission, which, in a letter dated February 4, 2012, has written to the defence secretary to submit an action taken report within four weeks. Surajit finally filed a writ petition in Gauhati High Court on May 3. On May 24, the Army filed an affidavit in court that Surajit was involved in extortion and abductions, gave shelter to ULFA militants and was himself a surrendered militant, charges he vehemently denies. The Army Court of Inquiry, convened on December 29, 2011, has reportedly indicted the commanding officer of the secret surveillance unit, Colonel Govindan Sreekumar, and accused him of extortion.
On May 19, General V. K. Singh issued a showcause notice to Lt- Gen Suhag on account of the “lapses”. While the issue muddies the Army’s succession plan and prompted the Ministry of Defence to examine the legality of General Singh’s action, all Surajit wants is the Army off his back. “Armymen keep shadowing me. I want an end to all this,” he says.