By Syed Zarir Hussain, IANS
Borkapanitema (Assam) : “Main Ram hoon, mujhe mat maro”(I am Ram, don’t kill me) were apparently the last words by abducted Food Corporation of India (FCI) executive director Phulchand Ram, killed Thursday in a crossfire between Assam Police and the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants.
His desperate plea for restraint was dimmed by intermittent gunshots with the police commandos in no mood to listen. Finally several bullets ripped through his head and stomach with the torso virtually dismembered.
Ram was killed in the gunfight at village Borkapanitema, about 50 km west of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.
Police now claims they were locked in a battle with militants of the outlawed ULFA holed up inside a house and were not aware about Ram being kept hostage there.
“After one person was shot dead by police, I heard the man shouting ‘Mein Ram hoon, mujhe mat maro’. But after that I don’t know what happened,” Kamini Deka, one of the witnesses to the incident, said.
Kamini is the eldest daughter of Gobinda Deka, a farmer, in whose house the ULFA forcibly sheltered Ram since Tuesday night before the police crackdown began Thursday.
She managed to escape the crossfire by hiding herself in a corner of the house – so did her younger sister Chitra who crouched behind a pile of clothes.
The Deka family saw Ram being escorted by the ULFA couple of times since Tuesday to the toilet located outside the house – he was clad in a vest and a lungi and his mouth masked with a ‘gamocha’ (a towel).
“I cooked meals for my family and the boys (ULFA) took some food from us and probably Ram ate the simple food that I prepared,” Kamini said.
The ULFA threatened the family to keep mum or else face death. Police on Friday, however, arrested Gobinda Deka and his wife for sheltering the ULFA.
Meanwhile, Ram’s son Pravin Gautam who was in Guwahati to claim the body accused the police of murdering his father.
“I will knock for justice now. We want a probe by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) as the police failed to save the life of my father,” Gautam said. The family is seeking permission from the central home ministry for a second autopsy.
“I understand that the ULFA wanted to release my father and so brought him so close to Guwahati,” Ram’s son said.