JORHAT, Sept 23 - Police today filed the chargesheet of the Teok Tea Estate doctor lynching case in the court. The chargesheet running into 602 pages was submitted in the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court (Jorhat) within 22 days of the incident of mob attack on Deben Dutta, the garden hospital doctor, who succumbed to his injuries at Jorhat Medical College and Hospital. The incident happened on August 31 afternoon.
Speaking to mediapersons at the Jorhat Superintendent of Police office chamber, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Eastern Range), Dr GV Siva Prasad said that the Special Investigation Team formed to probe the case with he (Prasad) heading the team, succeeded in completing the investigation in a short period of time and preparing a strong chargesheet supported with adequate evidence to get all the accused convicted.
The SIT had Jorhat SP Vaibhab C Nimbalkar, Additional SP (Headquarters) Prakash Sonowal and Teok Police Station Officer-In-Charge Dipankar Gogoi as members and was assisted by 22 sub-inspectors, the DIG said.
He said that among all the 32 accused arrested in the case and presently under judicial custody, only two were permanent workers while 13 were temporary and 17 seasonal workers of the estate.
Prasad informed that the accused were booked under Sections 302, 341, 342, 427, 506, 143, 144, 147, 148, 149, 186 of the IPC along with Section 4 of the Assam Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2011 in the Teok Police Station case number 434/2019. He stated that another Section of the IPC � 109 (Abetment) was later slapped on the accused.
Prasad said that the chargesheet names 60 witnesses and for the first time in history of Assam Police the witnesses, who needed to be provided protection, were covered under a Witness Protection Programme as per a Supreme Court ruling given on December 2018.
The DIG said that among the nine levels of evidence submitted along with the chargesheet were several original video recordings of the attack on the doctor, fingerprints and DNA analysis, chemical analysis, serological tests etc. He said 72 screenshots from the videos were part of the evidence.
A detailed timeline of the incident too is part of the chargesheet. Stating that police reacted promptly after being informed of the incident, the DIG said that altogether 37 policemen arrived at the spot and tackled a mob of over 200 to take the doctor and the injured worker who was earlier brought to the garden hospital, to a Government hospital.
Prasad said that the Jorhat police have written to the Government to appoint a Special Public Prosecutor for the trial of the case. It may be mentioned here that the Government earlier had announced setting up of a fast-track court to conduct the trial of the case. Jorhat SP Vaibhab C Nimbalkar, ASP Prakash Sonowal and Teok Police Station Officer-in-Charge Dipankar Gogoi were also present along with Dr Prasad.
