From February 17, 2009... To now January 25, 2014
- Sangai Express Editorial :: January 20, 2014 -

Spare the bullets. Use the spade. This should about sum up the brutality of the killings of Dr Th Kishan, Token and Rajen on February 17, 2009.

The disfigured bodies said it all.

Fast forward by nearly 5 years and justice seems to be at the threshold, with the Special Court of the CBI pronouncing that the final verdict would be delivered on January 25.

This is not an exercise in stirring the hornet’s nest and to be sure the NSCN (IM) had disowned the accused, S/S Lt Col Hopeson Ningshen, claiming that the triple murder was executed at his personal level and the organisation had nothing to do with it.

Black sheep was the term that the outfit had used to describe Hopeson Ningshen.

If memory serves us right, it was the outfit which handed him over to the Government authority with the CBI taking over the case on January 31, 2010.

If the verdict is indeed delivered on January 25, without any deferment, then due credit should be given to the investigating agency for the speed in which the trial was conducted.

Something which is rare in India. This has nothing to do with the conduct and behaviour of the cadres of a particular outfit, but this is about how the conduct of a ‘black sheep’ can go a long way in eroding the hard won confidence of the public.

What happened to the NSCN (IM) due to the conduct of a senior cadre can happen to any other group, which has launched the insurrection movement.

The interesting question is, have the cadres of the NSCN (IM) learnt any lesson from the February 17, 2009 incident ?

At one level the answer will be hard to come by and at another level it would not be that hard.

With the outfit emerging as something of a defacto Government, with its own set of rules and conduct, it is hard to really understand if any lesson has been learnt from the man made unfortunate incident, which manifested in the mangled and disfigured bodies of Dr Kishan, Token and Rajen and yet at the other end, it is not so hard to come to some sort of a conclusion that nothing much may have been learnt, which were demonstrated by the December 18 incident of 2012 at Chandel where a film actress was molested by a senior cadre of the outfit and again on December 23, 2013, when some rogue cadres allegedly molested some local women at Zunheboto.

The ugly fall out of these two incidents are still fresh in the minds of the people.

January 25 is the date, which the Special Court of the CBI has set to deliver its final verdict in the triple murder case.

The Sangai Express does not believe in trial by the media, but the brutality in which the three were done to death as well as the fingers of accusations that were pointed at the then Deputy Commissioner of Ukhrul district should not be forgotten.

Justice should be delivered but equally important too is the point that justice should also seem to have been delivered.

This is not trial by the media, but having a say on matters which rocked the State and which triggered a series of street protests, paralysing normal lives, especially in Imphal for days.

Let the Court have its say, for it is the prerogative of the Court to deliver the verdict and none else. In other words, it would be best to wait till January 25.

The loss of lives can never be compensated, this is a given and while the tears may have dried up a long time back, for time is supposed be the best healer, justice is another equally important healer. Sure the tears will come back, come January 25 and it is up to the Court to decide whether those tears will be one of happiness or a sense of satisfaction or one of having being short changed.

And in remembering the three slain men, the best respect that one can pay to them is to maintain harmony amongst the different communities and people.

This is the best salutation that one can pay to the departed souls.

Straying away from this line would defeat the very meaning and understanding of justice as well as defacing the patience which the immediate family members have demonstrated for nearly five years.

Amen.