Looking beyond the mobile suppliers : Understanding Jailgate
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 03, 2012 -

In as much as the swiftness with which the police acted and rounded up the suspects involved in the grenade attack at the residence of the president of All Manipur Working Journalists' Union on August 11, is noteworthy, it has nevertheless raised some discomfiting questions.

If what the police had to say to the media can be taken in its entirety then it may rightly be surmised that this was nothing short of Jailgate.

Press releases drafted and prepared inside the high walls of Sajiwa jail, threats and intimidations issued from inside the jail, attacks planned and directed against the media from within the premises of the jail and it should be clear to all that Sajiwa jail has been turned into a haven for criminals like Th Nando to carry out their nefarious designs.

The worrying part is the silence of the State Government to the obvious presence of a ring that allows such elements to operate from inside the jail.

Apart from the preliminary report that one VDF personnel has been identified for supplying the mobile phone to Nando, there is so far nothing much to suggest that the police are anywhere near cracking down on the racket that obviously exists and is thriving. Common sense says that Th Nando cannot operate in a vacuum or alone.

The active participation of some personnel who have direct access to him and to the jail is a foregone conclusion. It is this which is worrying.

The involvement of bigger fishes in the racket is a high probability and nailing one or two VDF personnel will only amount to treating the symptoms and not the ailment. The question is, will the police take the case to its logical conclusion or will it be satisfied with merely playing to the gallery ?

Sajiwa is certainly not an exception to criminals operating from within its confines. This however cannot and should not be the excuse with which some of these elements have been orchestrating and directing acts of violence from within with ease.

What is disturbing is also the suspicion and doubt that some of these acts may enjoy State patronage.

Not a healthy situation for democracy or for the rule of law to prevail, especially in a place like Manipur where there are numerous armed groups, many of them with dubious antecedents, each calling the shots.

These groups may not have much to show by way of fire power or political agenda as such, but their nuisance value is indeed high. All the more reason to suspect that there may just be some State agencies which stand to gain by the presence of such groups.

And obviously Th Nando is one such individual who can don different roles and assume the name of different groups with the ease in which chameleons change their colour.

Home Minister Gaikhangam has already made it clear that his first priority would be to refurbish the image of the State police and in the process win the confidence of the people and perhaps this is the right opportunity to go some way towards his foremost priority.

Crack the whip, sanitise Sajiwa jail and break the unholy nexus that exists between some criminals like Th Nando and some of the people well placed within the jail administration.

Catching a VDF personnel or two for trying to smuggle in tobacco products cannot be the answer.