Pravin Kumar at the news conference in Guwahati on Thursday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Dec. 18: The son of P.C. Ram, who allegedly died in a crossfire between security forces and his Ulfa abductors last year, today called for a narco test of police personnel involved in the encounter saying he did not believe their claims.

Pravin Kumar arrived in the state yesterday and visited Pachim Borka village where his father, then an executive of the Food Corporation of India, died.

Pravin today alleged before the media that circumstantial evidence suggested that his father had not died in the crossfire as believed but that it was a cold-blooded killing. “There is no scope for an encounter inside the room from which my father’s body was found. And my father and the two Ulfa militants found dead inside the room had head injuries, the nature of which indicated they were shot from point blank range,” he said.

Given the various modes of investigations available, including narco tests, there was no reason why the police officials engaged in the alleged encounter should not be put through these.

Ram was abducted by Ulfa militants in April last year from here and allegedly died in a crossfire between the pol-ice and the militants two mon-ths later at Pachim Borka vill-age, nearly 30km from the city.

Pravin, along with uncle Shivlochan, filed an affidavit in Gauhati High Court today, asking it to direct the CBI to conduct an impartial inquiry.

Displaying several photographs of the incident sites and bodies of his father and the two Ulfa militants that he has collected over the past few months, Pravin said these photographs clearly contradict the police’s claims of a heavy exchange of fire. “I have doubts whether the two AK-series rifles recovered from inside the room actually belonged to the Ulfa militants.”

Pravin brushed aside the police’s claims that his father may have actually been killed by one of the militants, saying had the abductors wanted to kill him, they would have done it earlier instead of holding him captive for two months.

He said top FCI officials could be involved in the kidnapping and killing of his father since Ram had taken the name of a particular official when he called up his residence during his captivity. “It seems that a few Assam police officials in connivance with these FCI officials orchestrated the killing,” he said.

Pravin said after visiting the house yesterday where the encounter took place, he got the impression that the the police could have easily carried out a rescue operation.