The Gauhati High Court upheld its September 2018 order absolving former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta of the charges of orchestrating a series of extrajudicial killings more than two decades ago.
At least 400 people — family members, relatives, and sympathisers of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) — were allegedly killed by the police in collusion with the surrendered ULFA cadres between 1998 and 2001. The executions, apparently to exert pressure on the ULFA, came to be known as ‘guptohoitya’ (secret killings).
