Ghanakanta Gogoi encounter: Guwahati hotel shooting accused killed

Ghanakanta Gogoi, the prime accused in the 26 October shooting at a Guwahati hotel that killed five people, was shot dead in an alleged police encounter in Assam’s Sivasagar district early on Wednesday (4 November), police said.

The encounter took place at around 3.10 am at Phulpanichiga, under Gaurisagar police station, The Hindu reported. Police were taking the 34-year-old from Guwahati to Sivasagar in connection with a 2024 bank fraud case registered in that district.

According to police, Gogoi asked the team to stop the vehicle so he could relieve himself, then attacked them and tried to escape. “Ghanakanta then tried to snatch an officer’s service revolver. Three shots were fired from the revolver amid the scuffle, and one of our officers was seriously injured,” Sivasagar Senior Superintendent of Police Papori Chetia said.

Chetia said one of the personal security officers then fired his service weapon. “In that the accused was also injured and when he was brought to the hospital he was declared dead,” she said. The injured officer was hit in the right leg and is stable, according to The Indian Express.

A Guwahati court had sent Gogoi to judicial custody on Tuesday after his seven-day police remand in the hotel case ended. Sivasagar police then took him into custody on a production warrant in the bank fraud case. His lawyer had earlier raised concerns about his safety in police custody, and a Guwahati court had directed police to put safeguards in place, including regular medical check-ups, The Hindu reported.

As The Indian Idiot reported earlier, Gogoi was arrested within an hour of the shooting at Hotel Bilas Inn, in which four members of the hotel owners’ family and a staff member were killed. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) found that the killings could have stemmed from a dispute over the hotel’s lease, renovation costs and money. Gogoi had taken the hotel on a five-year lease in September 2025, at a reported rent of ₹1.8 lakh a month.

His death means the charges against him will not be tested in court. It is the latest in a series of police encounters in Assam since May 2021. Police have consistently said most suspects in these cases were shot while trying to escape custody or snatch weapons from officers, The Hindu reported.