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| Gadapani Pathak’s family members talk to reporters on Monday. Picture by UB Photos |
May 14: Chief minister Tarun Gogoi today assured the family members of Gadapani Pathak, the engineer who was kidnapped and murdered in Dhubri early this month, that he would personally monitor the investigation by the CID to identify those behind his murder.
Pathak’s wife, Swarnali, daughter Barsha who is in her early twenties, and two other relatives, Prakash Deka and Pranab Jyoti Deka, met the chief minister today with an appeal for speedy justice.
The assurance came after the 45-minute meeting at Gogoi’s official residence at Koinadhora.
Pathak, a resident of the city’s Rupnagar area and superintendent engineer of the Gauripur agriculture engineering department in Dhubri, was whisked away along with executive engineer Faizur Islam from Khagarpur under Boithamari police station on May 2 and was subsequently killed.
Islam, who hails from Sorumotoria area of Guwahati, has still not been traced.
Pathak’s family today agreed to a probe by the CID but told the chief minister that if the investigation agency failed to make a breakthrough in the case within 15 days, they would demand the probe to be handed over to the CBI.
“The chief minister told us that he will personally monitor the case and was confident of getting a breakthrough by the CID soon. So we agreed for a probe by the CID. But if the CID fails to arrest those behind the crime, we will again demand a CBI probe,” Pathak’s brother-in-law Pranab Jyoti Deka told The Telegraph.
Gogoi said yesterday that he would ask the CID to probe the case after Pathak’s daughter expressed unhappiness over the ongoing inquiry by police, though the cops have arrested two persons in connection with the killing.
The family suspects that it was a case of pre-planned murder and some of his colleagues might be involved in the crime.
Gogoi today told the reporters at the state secretariat that all possible steps are being taken for a free and fair probe into Pathak’s murder.
“Pathak was an honest officer and his death was an unfortunate incident. The government will do everything to arrest those behind the crime and book them according to law,” the chief minister said.
On the demand for CBI probe, Gogoi said if the family insisted the government was ready to recommend the case for investigation by the CBI.
“If the case is given to the CBI, it will take some time and that may disrupt the probe by the CID. We will go by the wishes of the family,” the chief minister said.
The All Assam Students Union (AASU) also expressed unhappiness over Gogoi’s announcement for an investigation by the CID and demanded that the probe be conducted by the CBI.
AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya suspected that a big racket of corrupt officials was involved in the gruesome murder of Pathak and hence the CBI should probe the case.
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