Siddharth Roy
(siddharth001.roy@gmail.com)
The horrific shooting at Hotel Bilas Inn in the Bora Service Area of Guwahati on the night of October 26, 2026, has deeply affected the collective conscience of Assam. Within a matter of minutes, what began as a routine meeting over a commercial property lease and pending rent dues turned into one of the worst episodes of urban gun violence in recent memory. Five innocent people, including four members of a single business family, lost their lives on the busiest arterial road in our capital city, barely two kilometres from the Assam Police headquarters. While the Guwahati Police acted swiftly to arrest the prime accused, Ghanakanta Gogoi, within an hour of the crime and formed a six-member Special Investigation Team led by Joint Commissioner of Police Ankur Jain, the emerging details of the investigation point toward a much more profound problem. This tragedy is not just a story of a business dispute gone wrong. It is a stark warning about the unchecked spread of out of state firearm licences and the urgent need to change how weapons are monitored in urban Assam.
As the Special Investigation Team examined the .32 bore pistol bearing the serial number 1403 that was used in the killings, a deeply troubling fact came to light on November 1. The firearm licence held by the accused had not been issued by any district authority in Assam. Instead, it was procured from the neighbouring state of Nagaland. What makes this even more alarming is the revelation that the weapon was already on the formal records of the Paltan Bazar Police Station. Ahead of the Assam Assembly elections earlier this year, the accused had dutifully walked into the police station on March 17, 2026, and deposited the pistol in compliance with the election code of conduct. Once the voting concluded, the weapon was handed right back to him as a matter of routine procedure. This exposes a massive blind spot in how our law enforcement works. During election season, the police machinery focuses entirely on the temporary safekeeping of licensed weapons to ensure peaceful polling, without actually checking the origin or legitimacy of permits issued outside the state.
The Nagaland connection in the Bilas Inn killings raises serious legal questions that demand answers across state borders. According to official government records, the Home Department of Nagaland issued an administrative order back in 2003 banning the issuance of civilian gun licences to ordinary citizens. Yet, over the past twenty years, a quiet market of gun permits carrying the stamps of Nagaland and other northeastern states has repeatedly surfaced during police investigations across India. From business hubs in Delhi and Gurgaon to growing commercial centres like Guwahati, individuals looking for either a status symbol or a tool for intimidation have taken advantage of weak verification systems to obtain gun permits with nationwide validity. Following the November 1 revelations, the Member of Parliament from Nagaland, Supongmeren Jamir, rightly stepped forward to demand a strict probe into how the accused managed to get this permit despite the state ban. When a person doing business in Guwahati can easily skip the strict police verification of the Kamrup Metropolitan district administration and bring in a lethal weapon from across the state border, the entire purpose of the Arms Act of 1959 and its 2019 amendments is defeated.
Under the Arms Rules of 2016 and the rules of the National Database of Arms Licences, every single firearm permit must carry a unique identification number and go through strict background checks. The police are required to look into the mental health, criminal history, and genuine threat perception of the applicant before allowing them to own a gun. More importantly, Rule 17 of the Arms Rules clearly states that when a licence holder moves their home or main place of business to a new state, they must register that change with the local district administration within a fixed time so the local police can check if they actually need the weapon. On the ground, however, this rule is rarely enforced. Once a person deposits a gun at a local police station before an election and takes home an official receipt, that outside permit quietly gains an informal stamp of local approval. Nobody stopped to ask why a hotel leaseholder working in the middle of Guwahati needed a lethal weapon approved in a hill state where civilian licensing is officially frozen.
Adding to this failure is another everyday nuisance that came up during the police probe. The car used by the accused had an unauthorized press sticker pasted on its windscreen. Anyone driving through Guwahati at night knows how common it has become for private cars to put up fake media stickers, government boards, and VIP plates just to wave past routine police checking. When a man carrying an outside weapon can drive freely along GS Road hiding behind a fake press sticker, it shows how easily basic security checks are bypassed in our city.
Guwahati is no longer a quiet administrative town. It is the commercial, educational, and logistical gateway to the entire Northeast, drawing huge real estate money, hotel ventures, and high-stakes financial dealings. As disputes over land, leases, and business contracts naturally increase in a growing economy, the easy reach of firearms threatens to turn ordinary civil disagreements into deadly shootings. We cannot allow a business culture in Assam where rent and lease negotiations happen under the shadow of a loaded gun.
To make sure the Bilas Inn tragedy brings real change, the Government of Assam and the state police leadership must carry out a strict, time-bound check of every out-of-state gun licence currently inside Assam. Whenever a weapon registered in another state is deposited at an Assam police station during elections or comes to police notice, it should never be returned until the police get a fresh verification letter directly from the Home Department of the state that issued it. District magistrates in Assam should also use their clear powers under the Arms Act to cancel local validity or force fresh local police verification for any Guwahati resident holding an outside gun permit without a proven threat to their life. At the regional level, the Assam Police must work with neighbouring state forces through the North Eastern Police Coordination Committee to maintain a shared digital list that immediately flags fake or irregular permits across state borders. Simultaneously, the transport department and traffic police must take strict action against fake press and government stickers on private cars, including seizing vehicles and filing criminal cases against individuals impersonating journalists or officials.
Five innocent lives were cut short on October 26 because a lethal weapon sat comfortably in the hands of a man who had no business carrying it in our city. True justice for the victims of the Bilas Inn shooting requires much more than a fast trial and a prison sentence. It requires permanently closing the legal loopholes that allow outside gun permits to quietly arm our streets.