Sivasagar (Assam), Nov 3 (PTI) Hours after being sent to judicial custody by a court, the prime accused in the

Sivasagar (Assam), Nov 3 (PTI) Hours after being sent to judicial custody by a court, the prime accused in the

Sivasagar (Assam), Nov 3 (PTI) Hours after being sent to judicial custody by a court, the prime accused in the

Sivasagar (Assam), Nov 3 (PTI) Hours after being sent to judicial custody by a court, the prime accused in the Guwahati hotel firing incident that claimed five lives was on Tuesday arrested by the police in a 2024 bank fraud case in Sivasagar district of Assam, officials said.

    Earlier in the day, Dimpi Talukdar, Judicial Magistrate First Class of the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Guwahati, rejected the city police's plea for further seven days of custody, and sent the accused to prison.

    A Sivasagar district police team, which was stationed in Guwahati since this morning, arrested Ghanakanta Gogoi at the Guwahati Central Jail and took his custody to bring him to the district, they added.

    "This is a case filed by the then Punjab National Bank Manager Debabrat Buragohain in 2024 at Sivasagar police station. Gogoi had taken a car loan, but failed to pay the EMIs. He had even threatened the manager after failing to repay the loan," an official told PTI.

    The case no. 108/24 came to light after Gogoi was arrested in the firing incident and police was waiting for the court's order, he added.

    "Gogoi is being brought to Sivasagar at the moment. We will produce him before the court here tomorrow morning," the official said.

    On October 27, a court in Guwahati had remanded the accused to seven days in police custody, a day after the killings.

    Five people, including four from a business family, were killed and another person was injured in the incident at Hotel Bilas Inn in Bora Service area on the arterial G S Road in Guwahati on the night of October 26 over an alleged dispute between the owners of the property and its leaseholder over the management of the hotel.

    The leaseholder, Ghanakanta Gogoi (34), was arrested soon after the incident with a licensed .32-bore pistol allegedly used in the crime.

    The deceased were identified as 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.

    Assam Police formed a six-member special investigating team (SIT) to probe the firing incident, with the bereaved family alleging the attack was planned and demanding exemplary punishment for the accused.

    However, three members of the SIT were transferred from Guwahati within days of the killings in the heart of the city.

    On Monday, the accused was taken to the site for crime-scene recreation under heavy security deployment.

    According to a police statement, the Bharali family had entered into a five-year lease agreement with the accused on September 10, 2025, at a monthly rent of approximately Rs 1.8 lakh.

    Following renovation of the property by the accused, disagreements arose regarding the use of the premises and provision of certain facilities, it added.

    A meeting was scheduled at the hotel on Monday to resolve these issues. However, even before the meeting could commence, an argument escalated into a physical fight, following which Gogoi opened fire on six people, the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)