The Gauhati High Court gave a clean chit to former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in the ‘secret killings’ case on June 11.

The high court upheld its previous verdict and has now given its final verdict into the case. Gauhati HC held that the accusations against Prafulla Mahanta were part of a conspiracy by several politicians and political parties in a bid to hamper his image.

Meanwhile, addressing the media after the court’s order, the former Assam Chief Minister welcomed the decision and expressed his happiness.

Meanwhile, the court also pulled up Ajit Bhuyan and Ananta Kalita for failing to provide substantial proof to their claims, even after more than 531 days of filing an interlocutory application under Section 5 of the Limitation Act against the final order made by the Single Bench at the Gauhati High Court on September 3, 2018.

Meanwhile, speaking about the matter after the Gauhati High Court’s judgment, Ajit Bhuyan said, “Such killings can never happen without government sponsorship. These are not secret killings, these are government sponsored killings.”

He said, “At that time, there were several conspiracies against me. The court’s decision has been in favour of him (Prafulla Mahanta) due to negligence in the investigation process. Since the incidents were government sponsored, the investigations were not up to the mark."

It may be noted that the secret killings of Assam were a series of assassinations when relatives, friends, and sympathisers of ULFA insurgents were systematically killed by unknown assailants. These extra-judicial murders took place in Assam between 1998 and 2001.