Guwahati: By missing a meeting at his family-owned hotel, Dilip Bharali may just have dodged a bullet on Monday night.Dilip’s sister Helena was killed in the firing at Hotel Bilas Inn in Guwahati’s Ulubari area on Monday night.Dilip, Helena’s elder brother, said alleged shooter Ghanakanta Gogoi called the meeting to resolve a financial dispute over the hotel’s lease agreement. Dilip could not travel from Barpeta to the city because of personal work.“We leased out the hotel to Ghanakanta in Sept last year for five years at a monthly rent of around Rs 1.8 lakh. However, Ghanakanta, whom I have met only once to date, did not pay the rent for 11 months, and he called a meeting at the hotel on Monday evening. Helena, her son Debarshi, daughter-in-law Rinika and my brother Bhudev went to the meeting. Bhudev came from Barpeta to Guwahati to attend the meeting. However, I could not come as I had some personal work in Barpeta. Probably, I, too, could have been killed had I attended the meeting,” he added.Dilip and other family members travelled to Guwahati on Monday night after learning about the incident.The Bharalis are a business family from Barpeta. Their father, Bilash Bharali, was a prominent businessman and served as president of the All Assam Bus Association in the 1990s. Dilip is now the only surviving sibling among the family’s four children. His elder brother Dhurba died a few years ago.“The killing, in my opinion, indicates that it was a pre-planned incident. He fired six rounds, as per what we have heard, at six people, out of which five died and one is undergoing treatment at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital,” he added.Askar Ali, a clerk working for the Bharalis, said he visited the hotel several times to collect rent but did not find Gogoi there on the scheduled dates.At the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital morgue on Tuesday, Sulata Das (80) and her grandson Ranjan (30) arrived to collect the body of Sulata’s son, Narayan Das (58), who worked as a painter and electrician for advocate Bhudev Bharali for about 15 years.“Deuta (father) came to Guwahati with Bhudev on Monday from Barpeta. He keeps travelling between Barpeta and Guwahati often for work or with Bhudev. When we got the news that Deuta was killed in the shooting incident, we got to know that he had come to Guwahati with Bhudev,” Ranjan said.The family, which is from Dhupdhara in Goalpara district, sought justice for Narayan.
