Mahanta at a news conference in Tezpur on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Nov. 18: The AGP’s defence of Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in the “secret killings” scandal lasted all of three days.

If Mahanta was pleasantly surprised by Brindaban Goswami and Co’s support in the Assembly on Thursday, the party’s U-turn today on his indictment by the Justice (retd) K.N. Saikia Commission came as a rude shock. The AGP held its expelled founder president and head of its last government morally responsible for the extra-judicial killings between 1998 and 2001.

Goswami had lent his voice to the chorus of protests and questioned the ruling Congress’s intention behind rejecting the J.N. Sarma Commission’s report — the panel absolved Mahanta of wrongdoing — when it was tabled along with the Saikia commission’s findings in the Assembly.

Three days later, he was singing a different tune. “The Saikia commission’s report has been placed and there is no denying that these unfortunate incidents (extra-judicial killings) took place. As the party president, I can say that human rights were violated.”

His colleagues Dilip Kumar Saikia and Moidul Islam Bora said Mahanta must own moral responsibility for the killings since he was then the chief minister and also in charge of the home department. “He is not in our party now but is answerable to the people as he was the chief minister as well as the home minister at the time,” Bora said.

The leader of the Opposition, Chandramohan Patowary, was among those who had sprung to Mahanta’s defence the moment Justice Saikia’s damning report was tabled. One party legislator described the report as biased.

The AGP claimed that what was said in the Assembly that day did not amount to backing or defending Mahanta. “We only said that the party’s government was not responsible. The party will not provide protection to anyone involved in the incidents,” Goswami said.

He failed to explain how Mahanta could be involved in the killings — described in the report as “Ulfocide” because the victims were relatives of Ulfa militants or people known to them — when the government he headed was not.

Dilip Saikia said he was the one who raised questions about the killings during the winter session of the Assembly on November 30, 1998, and that Justice Saikia’s report mentions it. “It is not that the party was silent. I appealed for a non-violent and peaceful Assam in the Assembly. The party now demands of the Gogoi government security for those who deposed before the Saikia commission,” the former legislator said.

On AGP legislator Nurul Hussain’s name figuring in the report, he said a meeting would be held on Wednesday to discuss it.