Guwahati, Jan. 5: The Assam Human Rights Commission has held Dispur responsible for the death of Ulfa founder member Robin Handique in custody.

In a judgment passed yesterday, the commission said a gravely ill Handique died because he did not get proper medical treatment.

“Therefore, there was negligence on the part of the officials, more particularly the inspector-general of prisons, Assam,” the panel’s chairperson, Justice S.N. Phukan and member, S. Mahanta, said.

Apart from being a founder member of Ulfa, Handique was also one of the 16 central executive members of the rebel outfit.

The commission registered two suo motu cases in connection with the death of Handique in Kanaklata civil hospital in Tezpur on the night of August 30 last year.

The rights panel also ordered the state home department to pay a sum of Rs 1 lakh to Handique’s family as compensation within three months and furnish the compliance report.

“We recommend to the Assam chief secretary to get the matter inquired into and fix responsibility and take action, accordingly, so that a prisoner does not have to lose his fundamental rights. Healthcare is one of the fundamental rights, which has been violated in this case,” the commission said.

Handique was apprehended by the Royal Bhutan Army during Operation All Clear on December 21, 2003 and subsequently handed him over to the Indian army. Assam police took him into their custody on December 29 the same year.

When he was lodged in Tezpur jail, the Ulfa leader developed kidney-related problems and was admitted to Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) on November 4, 2004. After that he was intermittently treated in the GMCH from November 23, 2004, to September 8, 2005.

After going through separate reports submitted by the district magistrate of Sonitpur and the director-general of Assam police in connection with Handique’s death, the panel concluded that the accused, despite suffering from a kidney disorder, was not hospitalised. “The superintendent of Tezpur jail wrote to the inspector-general, prisons, to shift Handique to Central Jail, Guwahati, but there was no response. There was sheer negligence on his part,” the commission said.