The Gauhati High Court on Thursday directed the Union government to pay Rs 15 lakh each as compensation to family of five men who were killed in a fake encounter in Assam’s Tinsukia district in 1994, PTI reported.

The order was passed by a bench of Justices Achintya Malla Bujor Barua and Robin Phukan.

The five men – Prabin Sonowal, Pradip Dutta, Debajit Biswas, Akhil Sonowal, and Bhaben Moran – were killed by the Army’s 18 Punjab Regiment.

The men were among nine persons the Army had detained in connection with the killing of Rameshwar Singh, a tea estate executive, by members of outlawed military outfit United Liberation Front of Asom.

In 2018, an Army court had found seven military personnel, including a major general, guilty of the killings and ordered their dismissal from service and life imprisonment.

The personnel were Major General AK Lal, Colonel Thomas Mathew, Colonel RS Sibiren, Captain Dilip Singh, Captain Jagdeo Singh, Naik Albindar Singh and Naik Shivendar Singh.

On Thursday, the Gauhati High Court also declared the case as closed, saying a lot of time has passed and that now it would be difficult to retrieve any evidence or witnesses, reported PTI.

Reacting to the verdict, Jagadish Bhuyan, the general secretary of the Assam Jatiya Parishad, said that justice has been served after 29 years.

“For too long, the families of the five have suffered for something they did not do,” he told The Hindu.