Guwahati, Nov. 3: Gauhati High Court today issued summons to former Ulfa militant Mridul Phukan, the lone surviving accused in the murder of human rights activist and journalist Parag Das.

The high court also sought records of proceedings of the trial in which Kamrup district and sessions judge court had absolved Phukan alias Samar Kakati of all charges. A division bench of the high court, comprising Chief Justice Jasti Chelameswar and Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari, passed the order while admitting a criminal revision petition filed by the late journalist’s brother, Pallab Das.

The basic plea of the petitioner was retrial and reinvestigation of the murder by the CBI.

Public prosecutor Ziaul Kamar told this correspondent that apart from Phukan, the high court had made the state government and the CBI respondents to the petitioner’s case and had accordingly issued notices to submit necessary documents.

He said the registry of Kamrup district and sessions judge court had been asked to submit records of proceedings of the murder case to the high court.

Das, who was the executive editor of a vernacular daily, Asomiya Pratidin, was shot dead on May 17, 1996, just after he had picked up his five-year-old son from a school on Rajgarh Road in Chandmari.

The CBI filed a chargesheet against four surrendered Ulfa men on November 24, 2000, two of them posthumously. Another accused, Nayan Das, alias Guli, died while the trial was pending in court.

On July 28, the Kamrup district and sessions judge court acquitted Phukan for want of evidence. The verdict created widespread repercussion across Assam.

“The high court will fix the next date of hearing of the case after Phukan appears before the court and the receipt of records of the lower court’s proceedings,” Kamar said.

He said the high court had also registered a suo motu case for hearing on the murder on the basis of a letter written to the Chief Justice by former Gauhati University vice-chancellor Debo Prasad Barooah. The case has been clubbed with the criminal revision petition and will come for hearing together in the future, he added.

Sources said Barooah had stated in his letter that the people of Assam were shocked by the lower court’s verdict.

“To bring back the people’s faith in the judiciary, Barooah made a plea to the Chief Justice to restart the trial of the murder by the high court,” a source said.