Guwahati, Nov 3 A court in Guwahati on Tuesday sent 34-year-old Ghanakanta Gogoi, the prime accused in the recent firing incident that claimed five lives, to 14-day judicial custody, officials said.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court rejected the police’s plea for further seven days of custody, and sent the accused to prison.
“We are reviewing the court order. We wanted to get some more days of police remand, but the court sent him to judicial custody,” a senior official of Guwahati Police told PTI.
On October 27, a court in Guwahati remanded the accused to seven days in police custody, a day after the shooting incident.
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 GS 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, 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.
The 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 incident.
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.
(PTI News)
