Assam minister Pijush Hazarika, on Monday, said that there is nothing new about police actions on accused, who try to flee custody.
Hazarika said that to control crime, police need to act ‘tough’ and in the process death or injury of suspected criminals as they try to flee custody happens.
Notably, there has been a sharp rise in the number of “police encounters” in Assam, ever since Himanta Biswa Sarma took over charge as chief minister of the state on May 10 last year.
The opposition parties in Assam have been accusing the police in the state to have turned “trigger happy”.
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Assam minister Pijush Hazarika said: “If a criminal tries to escape or attacks the police, they may get injured or killed.”
“Criminals dying due to police action is not something new in Assam. It has happened in the past also,” Hazarika said while addressing the Assam assembly.
Defending the police action, Assam minister Pijush Hazarika claimed that crime rate in the state has decreased by 30 percent after the new government took charge last year.