ITANAGAR, 5 Feb: The Itanagar permanent bench of the Gauhati High Court has rejected the bail petitions of six persons arrested in connection with the death of Olip Litin Mukherjee at a rehab centre at Pasighat in East Siang district.
On 31 January, the single bench court of Justice Budi Habung rejected the bail pleas of Tojing Borang, Tatto Pertin, Oying Tayeng, Tenzing Megu, Limar Riram and Batum Kakki.
The court rejected their bail applications considering the magnitude of the offence alleged to have been committed by them, and also citing witness intimidation.
They were arrested in connection with Pasighat Police Station case no. 94/2024 under section 103(2)/127(2)/49 of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
On 20 July, 2024, Mukherjee’s mother Mohimang Litin filed an FIR, alleging that her son Olip was murdered at Serene Rehabilitation Centre at Gumin Nagar here in East Siang district, run by Nason Borang. She also alleged that the body of her son was brought to BPGH here for post-mortem without her knowledge.
The police, following an investigation, had arrested the six accused in between 20 July and 8 August, 2024.
Earlier, the bail applications of Tenzing Megu and Limar Riram were rejected by the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate here.
Thereafter, the bail applications moved before the Session’s Court, Pasighat, for release of all the accused were also rejected on 16 December, 2024.
The current petitions sought bail on the grounds of parity, prolonged detention of the accused (6 to 7 months), and delay in trial proceedings.
Additional Public Prosecutor (PP) T. Jini vehemently opposed the bail pleas, arguing that all the six accused had been involved in torturing Mukherjee, which resulted in his death.
As per investigation report, Mukherjee and 16 other inmates had made a failed attempt to escape the rehab centre on 19 July, 2024. But their escape attempt failed due to intervention of some senior inmates, including the accused persons. Following their failed escape attempt, all the 17 inmates were assaulted by the six accused with plastic, cane and bamboo sticks. The accused tied the victims’ hands with ropes and assaulted them before inflicting further physical torture on them.
The entire incident was recorded in CCTV camera installed inside the main hall of the rehab centre, which has been seized and sent for forensic analysis, the Additional Public Prosecutor revealed.
However, the forensic science laboratory (FSL) report is yet to be submitted.
The post-mortem report confirmed that Mukherjee died due to “Hypovolumic shock due to extensive bruises all over the body caused by multiple blunt traumas due to physical assault.”
The investigation further revealed that Nason Borang was running the rehab centre, Serene Life Foundation, without government authorization.
The Additional Public Prosecutor stated that the IO has already filed the charge-sheet on 15 October, 2024, naming 26 accused, including the six individuals seeking bail.
She further stated that a supplementary charge-sheet would be filed by the IO once the FSL report is available.
Opposing the bail pleas, the additional public prosecutor further argued that granting bail to the accused at this stage would adversely affect and hamper the fair trial of the case as the accused persons had approached the victim’s mother on 21, 22 and 23 July, 2024 for compromising and resolving the matter in kebang. She further stated that the accused being influential persons, could intimidate witnesses and tamper with evidence.
The additional public prosecutor pointed out that two other accused, Nason Borang and Tojing Borang, were granted bail under exceptional circumstances, one due to the death of his child, and the other due to his father’s death.
After hearing the arguments, Justice Habung ruled: “Under the given circumstances and considering the nature of allegation and the magnitude of the offence alleged to have been committed by the accused persons and their involvement in the assault incident as revealed in the record, and also considering that the matter is still pending for consideration on charge and the accused persons having found tried earlier to influence the family of the deceased for compromising and are likely to influence the witnesses, so as to dissuade the other witnesses which might hamper the fair trial of the case, I am not inclined to grant bail to the accused persons at this stage. Accordingly, these bail applications are rejected.”
