The First Gang case in Assam

Retd. Judge Murders Wife : 3 Daughters

H.L.Dev
The author was then the Deputy Superintendent of Police, CID, Assam
The author is presently the Inspector General of Police, CID, Assam

SHRI U.N. Rajkhowa, Sessions and District Judge of Dhubri, retired from service on 2-2-1970. His family consisted of Putuli Rajkhowa, his wife and three daughters -Linu, Jonali and Ruplekha. The eldest daughter lived with parents at Dhubri and the other two at Gauhati receiving highter education. Shri U.N.Rajkhowa had no son. After retirement all the members of the family mysteriously disappeared followed by the sudden disappearance of the retired District Judge himself. The abrupt disappearance of the members of the family created suspicion in the minds of the close relatives of Shri Rajkhowa. Suspecting some sort of foul play an "under detection" case was registered at Dhubri Police Station with a view to finding out a clue to the family's mysterious disappearance.

The Dhubri Police after vigorous enquiries learnt that Rajkhowa was staying at Savoy Hotel, Siliguri and contacted him there. On being questioned about the whereabouts of the family members. Rajkhowa at first said that his wife and daughter were at Darjeeling. Later during further interrogation he said that his wife had died of a fall from the corridor of his official residence at Dhubri on 11-2-1970 while his eldest daughter Linu had committed suicide by taking sleeping pills. He had thrown their dead bodies in the Brahmaputra with the assistance of some Biharis of Steamer Ghat, Dhubri. The other two daughters Jonali and Ruplekha who were studying at Gauhati, he said, arrived at Dhubri on being called by him on 15-2-1970 and had committed suicide by jumping into the Brahmaputra on the same day.

In the course of interrogation Rajkhowa went to the bathroom of Savoy Hotel on the pretext of changing his cloths and attempted to end his life by piercing a knife into his stomach, thus strengthening the suspicion of the police. The accused was subjected to thorough interrogation at Siliguri Hospital. This time he confessed to have murdered his wife and daughters with the help of his servant Umesh Baishya between 15-2-1970 and 25-2-1970. He said that he had concealed the dead bodies within the premises of his official residence at Dhubri in order to destroy the evidence of murder. On the strength of this interrogation Dhubri Police took up a case under Sctions 302/201/34 I.P.C.

Gauhati Police arrested Umesh Baishya on 11-8-1970. He confessed before the Magistrate to have illicit relation with Jonali and Ruplekha and further confessed to have murdered Mrs. Putuli Rajkhowa and her daughters-Linu, Jonali and Ruplekha -in collaboration with Upen Rajkhowa by hitting them on the heads. In his confessional statement before the Magistrate he narrated that on 11-2-1970 accused Upen Rajkhowa struck his wife and Linu with two iron rods on the heads and then both he and Rajkhowa gagged the victims till they were dead. Later the dead bodies were buried within the campous of the official residence of the accused Rajkhowa at Dhubri in a pit previously dug under the direction of Rajkhowa. After 4/5 days of the double murder Jonali and Ruplekha were brought to Dhubri by their father. Within an interval of 10 days after the two murders while Jonali and Ruplekha were sleeping during the day time, he and Rajkhowa hit them on the head with iron rods at about 1.30 p.m. resulting in their instantaneous death. The dead bodies were taken to the attached bath room and kept under lock and key. At night they were buried in another pit previously dug under the direction of Rajkhowa within the campus of his residence. Rajkhowa had paid Rs.200/- to him and promised to pay him another Rs.10,000/- later for his assistance.

Motive
Rajkhowa stated that Linu had fallen in love with a boy named Ramini Deka who was a non-Brahmin and not of his caste about 4 years back and he had been able to change her mind with great difficulty. Linu again fell in love with one Satish Goswami of Gauhati whom he considered to be sub-standard. The accused left no stone unturned to deviate his daughter's mind but in vain. Finding no other alternative he was constrained to agree to the marriage but his wife vehemently opposed it. The other daughter Jonali fell in love with Dr.Aswini Choudhury, a non-Brahmin boy of Kharghuli.

Due to these developments, Rajkhowa said, he lost his peace of mind and developed ill-feeling towards the members of his family. He hired a house at Kharghuli and asked his wife to go to Gauhati with the daughters but his wife declined on the ground that Satish Goswami might create trouble. So he murdered and buried them as stated by Baishya with the latter's help.

On the basis of the statement made by the principal accused four dead bodies were exhumed from the compound of the official residence of Rajkhowa by the Dhubri Police in the presence of the Magistrate. As the dead bodies were practically decomposed, it was difficult to recognise them.

Evidence
The Investigating Officer also collected from the pits long hairs, a golden ring studded with red and white stones, nine pairs of gold bangles, one glass bangle and an iron bangle and a few clothes of Rajkhowa and the victims containing stains of blood. They were identified by the relatives of the victims and also by a group photograph. The Investigating Officer also collected blood from the red-steads on which the victims had been murdered. The postmortem examination held on the dead bodies by the Civil Surgeon, Dhubri revealed that the dead bodies were of female sex. The State Forensic Science expert also gave similar opinion in respect of the sex of the victims.

The State Forensic Science visited the place of occurance and collected some sand from near the pits as mentioned above and subjected the sand so collected to chemical examinatation but found no trace of poison.

The skulls of the victims and the group photograph duly identified by the relatives of the victims were sent to the Chemical Examiner to the Government of India for establishing the identity of the dead bodies by the photographic super-imposition. The Chemical Examiner observed correspondence between anatomical land marks of each skull and the photograph of the face of each deceased. Over and above, the measurement of the distance between various anatomical land marks and their respective ratio in the skull as well as in the photograph of the deceased's face for each skull were found to be identical. Thus the identity of the dead bodies could be established. Above all, the discovery of the bodies on exhumation as deposed by the accused, was the strongest evidence of their identity.

Bigan Prasad, Md. Shahid Ali and Radhakanta Das of Dhubri, all associates of the family, stated that a tree in the official residence of Rajkhowa near the bath room was cut away and its roots were removed but the pit was not filled up. Md. Shahid Ali and Bigan Prasad further stated to have dug another pit in the same compound under the direction of the principal accused in the month of January 1970. Bigan Prasad also stated that the wife and the eledest daughter of the principal accused had asked him to fill the pit but when he started levelling, he was taken to task by Rajkhowa and was told to clear the pit. Accordingly he did that. The morning after the murders Bigan Prasad had seen Rajkhowa working restlessly inside the compound and telling Baishya to make a cup of tea for him. He told them that he had sent his wife and eledest daughter to Gauhati. Bigan Prasad and Shahid Ali stated to have seen accused Rajkhowa washing a huge number of cloths including bedsheet and bedcover in the bathroom himself the next morning and also found the pit by the side of the bathroom to have been filled up mysteriously.

On 16-2-1970 at 10.10 a.m. accused Rajkhowa booked a trunk call from Dhubri phone no.549 to Gauhati phone no.3124 bearing trunk call ticket no.000007 dated 16-2-1970 and asked Miss Jonali and Ruplekha to come back to Dhubri by State Transport bus next evening through the subscriber of the phone. This trunk call ticket was seized and the receiver of that call confirmed it.

The I.O. further examined one Miss Phaguni, the maid servant of Rabin Dutta of Silpukhuri, Gauhati, who stated that once the co-accused Baishya had threatened her saying that he had escaped the law even after murdering woman at Dhubri and if she would be killed by him nothing would similarly happen to him. Timir Baran Nandi of Siliguri stated that Rajkhowa had been staying at hotel Savoy before his arrest and started fasting. On query he had told him that he had committed sin and to atone for that he had given up taking meals.

Dr.Anil Kumar Mukherjee of Siliguri hospital also deposed that Rajkhowa had not taken his food for 3/4 days while undergoing treatment at the hospital following the the suicide attempt. On enquiry Rajkhowa had given the same the reply that he had committed sin.

Satya Prasad Chakraborty of Gauripur, Dhubri district and other members of his family said that Rajkhowa had fled away at the sight of a certain Sub-Inspector who happened to come to thier house at Gauripur after the ghostly murders.

A machanic who had come to his residence for some repairing works after the murders found Rajkhowa filling the pits himself. On seeing him Rajkhowa hurriedly left the place and again appeared at the spot and talked to him. The wife of a high official who paid a visit to his residence after the occurance wanted to use the bathroom but found it closed. Accused Rajkhowa requested her to use another bathroom. On the basis of unimpeachable sircumtantial evidence, Rajkhowa convicted and sentenced to death.