The death of an Assam police sub-inspector has taken a political turn with the opposition Congress seeking a probe by a central agency, and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma saying the policewoman’s family will be given that option. Sarma said a CID team would be in touch with Junmoni Rabha’s family to apprise them of the details of the investigation. “If they are still dissatisfied with the probe, then we can hand the case over to the CBI, we do not have any objections,” he said.

Junmoni Rabha, a sub-inspector with the Assam police, died around 2 am on Tuesday morning when her vehicle collided with a container truck in the state’s Nagaon district. Earlier that night, Rabha had been named as an accused in a case of extortion and dacoity.

On Thursday, a video began doing the rounds of a man who claimed to be an eyewitness to the accident. In the video, he can be heard claiming he had seen a collision between a small car and a truck, in which the former had been stationary and in the correct lane while the truck had driven into it head on. He also claimed that he saw a person leaving the car 10 minutes before the incident. Later in the day, the man was taken into police custody for questioning.

According to police, Rabha was alone in her private vehicle, dressed in civil clothes and appeared to be driving towards Upper Assam. The container truck has been seized but the driver had reportedly fled before police arrived.

“A police patrol party reached the spot soon after getting intimation around 2:30 am of a collision between a truck and another vehicle. They found that SI Rabha was inside the vehicle in an unconscious condition. She was declared dead after she was taken to Koliabor Sub-Divisional Civil Hospital,” said a police official.

Her relatives have raised questions about the circumstances around her death. “She had been in Guwahati that morning and she had left for Nagaon with our mother around 9:30 am… There was no reason for her to leave the house so late in the night. Why she left, what was the incident… we feel doubtful about that. Things were going on, there were cases also. There was no meaning in being alone in the car at 1:30-2:00 at night,” said her elder brother Karuna Rabha.

Assam DGP GP Singh had said on Tuesday: “An FIR was registered on May 15 at North Lakhimpur police station in which the name of SI Junmoni Rabha was mentioned as an accused. Lakhimpur police and Nagaon police took lawful action pursuant to the registration of the crime. In the meantime, in the wee hours of May 16, information was received about the death of SI Rabha in a road accident. In the wake of request of a fair probe from various sections of society into the FIR and the death of SI Rabha, it has been decided to transfer investigation to CID Assam.”

The FIR against Rabha has been registered under sections pertaining to criminal conspiracy, dacoity, wrongful confinement and extortion. The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint by a resident of Lakhimpur alleging that Rabha and other accused had demanded Rs 6 lakh from their family.

Rabha was posted as a sub-inspector in the Morikolong police outpost in the Nagaon district. She had made news last May when her fiancé was arrested on charges of fraud based on an FIR lodged by her. However, soon after, she too was arrested under charges of corruption along with him. She had been remanded to judicial custody by a court in Majuli district and was suspended from police service.. She re-joined later after the suspension was lifted.

She had also been in news earlier that year, in January, when audio of a purported telephonic stand-off between her and an MLA got leaked.