Guwahati, Nov 4 (PTI) The prime accused in the Guwahati hotel firing incident that claimed five lives was killed in police firing in Assam’s Sivasagar district early Wednesday while allegedly attempting to escape from custody, a senior officer said.
While the families of the hotel firing victims described the accused’s death as “God’s justice”, opposition parties maintained that criminals should be brought to justice through legal process and expressed apprehension that he might be only a small part of a larger land mafia network.
The encounter took place in Gaurisagar area around 3.10 am when the accused was being taken to Sivasagar in connection with a separate case, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Papori Chetia said.
Ghanakanta Gogoi (34), the leaseholder of Guwahati’s Hotel Bilas Inn, had fired on six people inside the hotel premises on October 26 following an alleged dispute with the property’s owners. Five of those shot, including four members of the Bharali family that owned the hotel, died.
Gogoi was arrested soon after the incident, and a licensed pistol allegedly used in the crime was seized from his possession.
A court sent Gogoi to jail after the completion of his seven-day police remand on Tuesday. He was then arrested in connection with a 2024 bank fraud case on the same day.
The accused was being taken to Sivasagar for further investigation when police fired at him after he allegedly attempted to escape, the SSP said.
“He was a trained shooter and an experienced person with different weapons. When he alighted from the police vehicle to relieve himself, he tried to snatch the service weapon of our investigating officer (IO). There was a scuffle with the accused, and our officer was badly injured. To save our officer, the PSO of the Sivasagar Sadar Police Station officer-in-charge had to fire,” Chetia said.
Gogoi suffered a bullet injury and was declared dead when taken to a hospital, she said.
The injured police officer is undergoing treatment at a local hospital.
“Gogoi was a criminal-minded person. He was a threat to our officers,” the SSP added.
Chetia said three bullets were fired from the IO’s weapon during the scuffle, though none of them hit anyone.
The doctor who attended to Gogoi said he was brought dead. “He had a bullet injury near his heart, with both entry and exit wounds visible,” the doctor said.
The body was initially kept at the Sivsagar Civil Hospital and was later taken to Assam Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh, where the post-mortem is likely to be conducted on Thursday, an official said.
Sharing details of the new case in which he was arrested by Sivsagar police, the SSP said it was filed by the then Punjab National Bank Manager Debabrat Buragohain in 2024.
“The case was already under investigation and arrest of the accused was pending. Last night, we took him into custody, and he was being brought to Sivasagar,” Chetia added.
On receiving the news of Gogoi’s death, families of the victims of the Guwahati hotel firing incident termed it “God’s justice”.
The deceased were Bhudev Bharali (65), his sister Helena (58), her son Debarshi Kashyap (39) and daughter-in-law Rinika Kashyap (30), and family staffer Narayan Das (48). A driver of the Bharali family, Satyendra Pathak (43), was also injured in the shooting.
Speaking to reporters at their residence in Barpeta, the elderly mother of Bhudev and Helena said, “Their souls will find peace now. As their family, we will also find some peace. I want to thank the Almighty for giving us this justice. I had faith in God that justice would be done.”
Bhudev’s daughter also thanked the people of Assam for standing by the family during the difficult period.
Pathak’s mother said, “We were concerned about the safety of my son. Now with Gogoi dead, we are relieved to a great extent.”
Meanwhile, opposition leaders questioned Gogoi’s death in police custody and said the accused should have been tried in court.
“It cannot be said with certainty that Gogoi was acting alone. The killer could be part of a larger land or property mafia syndicate. It is very likely that the shooter was not the mastermind,” state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi told reporters after meeting the bereaved Bharali family at Barpeta.
Citing his discussion with the family, he maintained that critical facts remained concealed and the case must not be closed just because an encounter has taken place.
The Lok Sabha MP alleged that land mafias target families who own plots in prime locations in Guwahati.
Raijor Dal MLA Akhil Gogoi, who was travelling to his constituency Sivasagar, spoke to reporters at the incident site.
“Ghanakanta Gogoi was a professional killer; we can call him a terrorist. His dying by a bullet has nothing to feel bad about per se. However, I don’t support encounters. He had no right to live, but we would have preferred if he had faced justice through due process,” he said.
Meanwhile, CRPF Director General G P Singh, who formerly served as the Assam DGP, made an apparent reference to the incident in a cryptic social media post.
“The relevance of Newton’s third law remains undiminished in Assam. Keep it up @assampolice,” Singh wrote.
He also shared his post of December 1, 2021, which stated, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction – Newton’s Third Law.”
Singh, who was then the special DGP (law and order) of Assam, had made the earlier post on the day the prime accused in the lynching of a student leader in Jorhat was killed while allegedly attempting to escape from police custody.
His social media post drew attention to previous instances in which accused persons were killed or injured in police firing while allegedly attempting to escape from custody.
According to data placed before the Assembly by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in March last year, at least 72 people were killed and more than 220 injured in police action in the state between May 10, 2021, and February 23, 2025. PTI SSG BDC MNB NN
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