Barpeta traders kept their businesses shut until 11 am on Thursday, demanding the death penalty and a fast-track trial for the accused in the Guwahati hotel shooting that killed five members of a family and a caretaker.
The shooting took place on Monday at Hotel Bilas Inn in Guwahati. Police identified the accused as Ghanakanta Gogoi, 34, who had leased the hotel in September last year. Police said Gogoi allegedly shot dead the hotel’s co-owners, Helena Bharali and her elder brother Bhudev Bharali, Helena’s son Debarshi, daughter-in-law Rinika and caretaker Narayan Das over financial disputes.
Gogoi surrendered to police within hours of the incident and is currently in custody. He has been remanded in police custody for seven days from Tuesday and is being questioned at Paltan Bazar police station.
The victims’ bodies were taken to their family home in Issapurhati, Barpeta, on Tuesday, where their last rites were performed. The shutdown by traders in Barpeta was organised as a public condemnation of the killings and as a demand for strong punishment and a speedy legal process.
A Barpeta trader, who requested anonymity, said the Bharali family was respected in the town and had a business legacy spanning decades. The trader said the family’s father, Bilas Bharali, established Hotel Bilas Inn in Guwahati in the late 1990s and was known as an affluent and respected businessman in Barpeta.
The family’s wider business links also include Dilip Cinema on Barpeta Road, which is run by Dilip Bharali, the elder brother of Helena and Bhudev. The family’s commercial presence in Barpeta and Guwahati has made the killings a matter of concern for local traders beyond the immediate site of the incident.
Congress MLA from Paka Betbari, Jakir Hussain Sikdar, visited the family and called for capital punishment and a fast-track trial. He described the shooting as an unprecedented incident in Guwahati, saying that he had never heard of an incident in which someone opened fire and killed five people in the heart of the city.
The police investigation remains focused on questioning Gogoi in custody. The demands raised by traders and the MLA will now run alongside the criminal investigation and the legal process against the accused.
