Guwahati: An alleged notorious thief, arrested on charges of burglary, was shot dead by a team of Assam Police at Dergaon in the state’s Golaghat district when he allegedly fired at the police team escorting him. According to the police, the deceased, Dilip Sahani aka Lagan Sahani, a resident of Golaghat district’s Teliapatty village, was reportedly leading a team of Dergaon police at around 9.20 pm on Sunday with the purpose of recovery of stolen items in connection with a Dergaon police station case vide number 210/2023. The accused was arrested in the said case under sections 457 (Lurking house-breaking by night) and 380 (Theft), of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).


The police said that as they reached near the Basic Training Centre in Dergaon’s Raja Bahar village, the accused suddenly took out a pistol from among the stolen items and fired at the police team. In retaliatory action, the police team also fired at the accused in which he sustained bullet injuries. Though the police immediately rushed the injured accused to the nearby Dergaon Community Health Centre (CHC), the doctors declared him dead.


The police later recovered an Italy-made 7.65 mm pistol, one magazine with two live rounds of 7.65 bullets, and some cash, besides stolen items from the place of occurrence. The deceased was allegedly involved in several cases of burglary. The Dergaon police have registered a case in this regard.



The pistol, ammunition, and other items were recovered by the police.


“Cases of burglaries were rising in the Dergaon area for the past several years and the accused Dilip Sahani was the most notorious among all the thieves. He was involved in several big thefts and had been arrested several times in the past. Each time he was released from jail, he used to commit similar offences,” Golaghat Superintendent of Police (SP), Rajen Singh, told the media.


“It is yet to be ascertained how many rounds were fired at the accused and how many bullet injuries he sustained. Inquest and post-mortem examination as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) will be done and it can be said exactly how many bullet injuries he sustained only after the post-mortem report comes,” SP Singh added.


An affidavit submitted by the Assam government before the Gauhati High Court earlier stated that as many as 56 people were killed and another 145 have been injured in police action between May 2021 and August 2022.


Two months after assuming office, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in July 2021 had directed the Assam police to shoot criminals in their legs if they attempted to escape from custody.


The writer is a senior independent journalist covering the Northeast.


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