Manipur is literally in the hands of police commandos : Advocate Mukul Sinha
3 member SC Commission recommends SIT
Source: The Sangai Express / Ninglun Hanghal

New Delhi, August 04 2013: The report of the Supreme Court appointed commission which investigated alleged fake encounter killings in Manipur is stunning, remarked senior Advocate Collin Gonsalves.

The Commission has also recommended that a Special Investigation Team be set up to investigate all such cases registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

"After continuous grilling of witnesses, I saw people of Manipur smiling and saw a 'face' of the police" recalled Advocate Mukul Sinha yesterday at an event in New Delhi, organized by civil societies in the backdrop of the Hedge led three member commission report on fake encounters in Manipur.

The two renowned defense counsels cross examined the State witnesses who deposed before the three member bench, Justice Santosh Hedge, JM Jyngdoh and Dr Ajai Kumar Singh.

The matter pertains to the six cases drawn out of the 1528 alleged fake encounter cases filed by Extra Judicial Executions Victim Families Association Manipur at the Supreme Court.

'Out of Focus : In the shadow of AFSPA : Solidarity with victims of AFSPA in Delhi' on 3rd August 2013 Pix - Tushar Nongthombam

Drawing a parallel with Kashmir and other conflict areas of India such as Chhattisgarh and Gujarat, Mukul observed that encounter killings follow a similar pattern which according to him is "pan Indian" .

An experienced defense counsel in some of the infamous encounter cases in Gujarat, a State known to have "encounter specialist", Sinha found that while encounter patterns are similar there are differences in the motives, in Gujarat the motive is political , and in Manipur the motive is financial and economic reasons he said.

The motive in Gujarat is a creation of a Hindu idol, where there is killing of a Muslim every interval, while in Manipur the commandos seem to be doing the killings for some politicians, where a UG gets shot every interval, Sinha revealed.

Taking the case of the killing of a 13 year old Azad Khan, Sinha asserted that there is no iota of evidence to prove that the boy was a member of any underground outfit nor had a criminal record.

AFSPA is used ( not misused) as a cover up he said.

The defense counsel underlined the brutality of the state Commandos and stated that "Manipur is handed over to the hands of the Cdos" .

Recalling some of his cross examination process, Collin Gonsalves put before the gathering, the usual arguments that the security forces in Manipur normally put up.

He observed that after exchange of firing, a dreaded dead body of a UG and a 9 mm pistol would be recovered.

In one of the arguments, said Gonsalves, the army officer blatantly argued that he shot the man because he came from a certain village and he believed that he is one of the UGs in the list which the Officer said he hadn't checked.

Gonsalves also pointed to the absurdity of the case of Manorama Devi where an odd 17 jawans ran after her and shot when she allegedly tried to escape.

Hegde commission constituted in January this year, after an intensive inquiry in Imphal and Delhi, submitted their report to the Supreme Court in April.

For the first time, the report was made public with the apex Court's order in early July, directing that a copy may be made available to the petitioners.

The next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, August 6 .

The commission observed that AFSPA had little or no effect in containing insurgency in Manipur.

The problem is about unemployment rather than ideology, but in contrast this creates employment among under- ground groups and the police commandos and other formation for combating terrorism, it said.

The report says that commandos appear to be terrorizing people.

It observed that their role and responsibility is not clearly defined with no clear command and control structure.

During inquiry, the commission noticed a serious lapses on the part of the State Police during their operations and investigations.

There is a vast difference between the bullets fired and empty cases recovered from the crime scene noted the report.

Members observed there is no efforts by the State Police to search the scene of occurrence and postmortem were conducted after many days .

Members also noted the inadequacy of the Manipur State Police.

The commission further recommends that more areas be de-notified under section 3 of AFSPA.

And that any law and order regression should be opened to the appropriate Government, and any extension of provisions of AFSPA should necessarily be placed before the State Legislature, the report said.

Members called for more sensitivity from the State administration and State security forces, and also to look into public grievances and set mechanism for the same , such as a control room (with phone and computers) to receive complaints of extortion, and plans for strengthening police to do away with central armed forces.

It also recommended that all cases of encounter be investigated by CID and officers not below the rank of Dy SP /ASP.

And that a Special Investigation Team should be formed to investigate all cases of UAPA.

Noting that although under the provision of section 6 of AFSPA, there is no bar to drawing up of FIR and investigation against Central Armed Forces, no charge sheet can be filed against the forces without approval from Central Government, the commission recommends that there should be a reasonable time limit.

Within three months the Central government should pass an order on receipt of request for prosecution failing which its sanction shall be presumed.