Imphal, January 30 2010: An armed man killed by police commandos as suspected militant in an alleged encounter early Saturday, turned out to be the IRB man who decamped with the service weapon issue to him yesterday.

Imphal East police commandos who were on alert after the decamping of the IRB man last night clashed with the armed man at Wangkhem, neighbouring Keirao Bitra in Imphal east district from where the IRB deserter hails at about 2.30 am and killed a suspected militant, first information received from the police stated.

However, police confirmed the killed man turned out to be the IRB deserter later, when the family claimed the body as that of the deserter rifleman of the 6th IRB identified as Md Aszal Ali (23) son of Nasir Ali of Keirao Bitra Awang Leikai.

The weapon he took away while decamping, a Light Machine Gun (LMG), with three magazines and 180 live rounds was also recovered, the police said.

According to the police he was killed when the commando personnel fired after he refused to stop despite strong warning for checking.

The slain deserter was among the six personnel of the sixth IRB battalion who were assigned as additional escort to the chairman of the Manipur Pollution Control Board, MLA E Dwijamani.

He sought the additional escort in connection with a tour yesterday.

Even though Aszal Ali was found missing from around 9 am yesterday, after he along with five other personnel reported to the escort cum house guard commander of the chairman, the matter came to light only when the commander lodged complaint with the Imphal police station late in the evening after the VIP came back from the tour.

Even though, police claimed that IRB man was killed in an encounter, several bluish marks and fractures at his hands suggested that he was tortured before killing.

There were several marks of beating using some blunt weapons.

The hands of the body, which is now being kept at RIMS morgue for postmortem, appears to have been broken.