(1.) Basic facts of this case are substantially admitted. The only difference is in the nature of a defence set up by the respondents, otherwise it is an admitted position that the father of the petitioners No. 2 to 4 and the husband of petitioner No. 1 were picked up by the Army on 13th September, 1997.
(2.) While the writ petitioners' claim is that on 13.9.97 at about4.00 P.M. agroup of Army personnel came to the Tea Stall while Bhupen Choudhury their father was engaged in his own tea stall he was asked to go with them to their camp. Handing over the charge of his Tea Stall to one of his sons, he went with the Army personnel. At the same time another person by name Sri Krishna Sharma was also picked up, who was the manager of another nearby tea stall. When he did not return by the night, the petitioners with four other local person went to Khairabari Army Camp around 9 A.M. they reached at the Gate of the Army Camp and requested the Sentry on duty to allow them to meet the Major. An Army personnel wrote the names of the petitioners and other persons on a slip of paper and went inside. After a while the persons came back with few others and started scolding them and did not allow them to meet the Major refusing entry to the camp. The petitioners thereafter went to the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Darrang, Mangaldai to meet him. It was there that the came to know that their husband/father of the petitioners had died in the army custody.
(3.) On 15.9.97 his dead body was handed over to the Khairabari P.S. It was sent to Mangaldai Civil Hospital where the post mortem examination was done. Inquest report was also prepared by a Magistrate. The petitioners on receiving copy of inquest report and the post mortem examination report, Annexures-4 and 5, it was confirmed beyond doubt that Bhupen Choudhury died due to brutal torture at the hands of the Army personnel, while in their custody. It was further contended that Bhupen Choudhury was subjected to brutal and inhuman torture by the Army Personnel in the name of interrogation about the hide outs of NDFB Extremists of which he was completely ignorant.