Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, September 18, 2010:
In an alleged "fake encounter" killing, wherein the High Court had directed the AR to pay Rs four lakh to the family of the victim, police has approached the court to close the FIRs in connection with the incident without its investigation reports, before its handing over the case to the CBI as per decision of the cabinet.
A source told Hueiyen Lanpao that police has submitted the final report without any investigation to the killing of the youth.
A criminal writ petition filed by the mother of the youth praying the court to issue a directive to hand over the case to an autonomous investigative agency like the CBI and a cabinet decision to handover the case to CBI are still to be acted upon.
The case is related with the killing of Khundrakpam Tejkumar alias Gandharva six years ago in March, 2004.Tejkumar was abducted by some Hindi speaking persons in military uniform who came in a Maruti Gypsy vehicle bearing registration no ML-05/2476.Tejkumar was taking part in organizing sports for Holi at Uripok Laikhurembi ground.
A writ petition had been filed by the mother of the deceased, Khundrakpam Binashakhi of Uripok Laikhurembi Leikai to the Gauhati High Court which passed an order directing Additional District and Session Judge, Manipur west to investigate into the case and submit a report by May 31, 2008. The report submitted by Additional District and Session Judge, Manipur west charged that Tejkumar was killed by troops of 19 Assam Rifles after torturing him in their custody before shooting him dead in a staged encounter.
On March 25, 2009, based on the finding, the Gauhati High Court directed the Assam Rifles authority to pay a compensation of Rs four lakh to the family of the victim.
Complying the directive, Assam Rifles gave the compensation amount to the family through the Registrar of the Gauhati High Court, Imphal Bench on January 20, 2010. Not content with Tejkumar's mother, Binashakhi, on May 19 2010, filed another criminal writ petition to the Imphal Bench of the High Court with a prayer to re-investigate the case by handing it over to a dedicated investigative agency like the CBI.
The hearing of the case is still pending with the court.
Meanwhile, state home department issued a notification on March 19 relating to the handing over of the case to CBI as per a decision of the state Cabinet taken on March 11, 2008.The CBI is yet to take over the case.
Police had filed FIRs against the killing of Tejkumar.
One was registered with the Lamlai police of Imphal east based on the complaint lodged by troops of 19 Assam Rifles while the other one was registered with Imphal police station based on the complaint lodged by the mother of deceased Tejkumar.
The FIR case registered with Lamlai Police Station was already closed and Imphal Police Station had also submitted a final report to the court with the prayer to close the case without an investigation report, the source told Hueiyen Lanpao.