A special court of the National Investigation Agency in Guwahati has awarded life imprisonment to a Dobo militant Rabi Basumatary in a 2014 case of indiscriminate firing on villagers in Assam.
Rabi, who is known by many aliases including Rongjabaja, was also awarded rigorous imprisonment for 10 years along with life imprisonment in various cases of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
He has been sentenced to life imprisonment in two cases and rigorous imprisonment in two others under charges of Sections 302, 307 and 34 of the IPC and section 16 (1) (a) & 20 of the UA (P) Act, 1967.
The NIA said that Rabi has also been fined in all the cases, and will have to undergo additional simple imprisonment in case of failure to pay the same.
Seven villagers were killed and two were grievously injured in the case, in which Rabi was arrested in September 2016 and chargesheeted by the NIA in March 2017 through the first supplementary chargesheet.
The original chargesheet in the case was filed in Gossaigaon, against accused Pradip Brahma alias Pwler in August 2015. A second supplementary chargesheet was filed in October 2019 against accused Upen Basumatary alias Usaobadao, while a third supplementary chargesheet was filed in January 2021 against five absconding accused persons.
In July 2016, the Special NIA Court had convicted and sentenced accused Pradip Brahma to life imprisonment. The trial against Upen is ongoing and the search for the absconding accused is underway.
Investigations into the case revealed that Rabi was a member of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB).
In May 2014, Rabi, along with six other NDFB cadres, had entered Balapra village under Assam’s Kokrajhar district and opened indiscriminate fire on the villagers on instructions from top NDFB leadership headed by G.Bidai and Songbijit.
