From the dark shadows of Assam agitation, poster boy Prafulla Mahanta sees light: clean chit on ‘secret killings’

 Former Assam chief minister Prafulla Mahanta was cleared of all charges in the “secret killings” case. (Express photo)

Sixteen years after an inquiry commission report had indicted former Assam chief minister Prafulla Mahanta for being instrumental in a series of “secret killings” — extra-judicial killings of family members of ULFA militants between 1998 and 2001 — the Gauhati High Court cleared him of all charges on Monday, while upholding its 2018 order on the matter.

In September 2018, the court had quashed the constitution of the K N Saikia inquiry commission (which had indicted Mahanta in its 2007 report). However, an interlocutory application (IA) had been filed by Rajya Sabha MP Ajit Kumar Bhuyan and Ananta Kalita, challenging the order. On Monday, the division bench of Chief Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Mitali Thakuria, dismissed their application, observing that the petitioners had filed it 531 days after the court’s earlier verdict, and failed to “convincingly appeal” the gross delay in filing it. They also made “inconsistent and contradictory pleadings in the three affidavits”, the order observed.

Prafulla Mahanta (extreme right) with Tarun Gogoi (extreme left) at a 2018 protest dharna against the CAA in Guwahati. (Express photo by Dasarath Deka) Prafulla Mahanta (extreme right) with Tarun Gogoi (extreme left) at a 2018 protest dharna against the CAA in Guwahati. (Express photo by Dasarath Deka, file)

The 70-year-old Mahanta and his family members welcomed the High Court’s order absolving his name.

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