Trial hearing on triple murder case resumes
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, December 19 2013:
Resuming the hearing on Case CC no.36/2010-CBI Vs Hopeson Ningshen, which is related to the abduction and subsequent murder of Dr Thingnam Kishan, who was then the SDO of Kasom Khullen and his two sub-oridnate staffs namely Revenue Mandal Y Token and driver A Rajen Sharma by some NSCN (IM) cadres in February, 2009, in the court of court of V.K.Gupta at Patiala House, New Delhi today, Defence lawyer, N..DPancholi pointed out the procedural lapses in the judicial confession of the accused Hopeson and argued that questioning, which is a very important part of a judicial confession, was not properly conducted in his case.
Countering his argument, Sr.
PP A.K.Singh, citing Section 24 India Evidence Act, and argued that no undue pressure have been made on the accused.
He was given sufficient time (48 hours) in judicial custody and was asked 32 times to rethink whether to make the confession or not.
Singh further pointed out that the accusation of any kind of procedural lapses does not negate the fact that three people were killed and that the task of the court is to look into facts and corroborate them with evidences.
Countering the Defence argument that Hopeson surrendered on moral ground just to avoid any communal violence, Singh argued that the killings had a communal angle.
He stated that the dead SDO could be maligned with anything but what was the reason for killing the driver and the mandal.
He also recalled that NSCN (IM) had constituted an inquiry commission in February 2009 and in the statement given to the inquiry commission, Senior Cadre of NSCN (IM) Col.Levi Kachui had clearly stated that Hopeson was responsible for the crime.