'Torture' victim recounts ordeal, flees home
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 10 2017: In a disturbing and harrowing turn of events, one individual was allegedly picked up and brutally tortured for two days before being handed over to police on the pretext of being a militant.

The individual, identified as one Wareppam Basanta (44) of Langol Housing complex type 2, was finally granted bail by the Court after he was handed over to police by the Assam Rifles.

Speaking to The Sangai Express at the residence of one of his acquaintance in a remote part of Ukhrul district, Basanta said that he has left his home fearing that the AR personnel may come at any minute and take him away.

Even his wife and children have left their home as they fear for their lives and are uncertain what the AR personnel might do to them.

Basanta claimed that he was picked up by personnel of the 34 Assam Rifles stationed at Mao/Maram.

'Torture' victim recounts ordeal, flees home

Once inside their custody, the Assam Rifles regularly coaxed him to confess that he was a PREPAK (Pro) cadre.

He said that aside from threatening to kill him if he did not confess, the AR personnel also subjected him to third degree torture.

Basanta claimed that razor blades were used to inflict cuts in his private parts and sticks were inserted adding that the AR personnel even poured chilli juice and petrol over the wound and also inserted sticks into his anus.

Pointing out that he has been having trouble urinating as a result of the torture, Basanta stated that the wounds have become septic and he regularly bleeds while urinating.

Recalling the incident, he said that for most of the time he was in the AR's custody, he was blindfolded and not given any food.

He was generally kept unconscious with the help of a pill which he was given during the morning and afternoon.

Showing the bruises and wounds allegedly made by AR personnel on different parts of his body, Basanta claimed that in the evening and night, the security personnel used to torture him by beating him while pouring water into his mouth, kicking and punching his stomach, branding his legs and hands with hot iron rods.

He also stated that he has lost much sensitivity of his hands and feet due to the constant torture and beatings.

Basanta expressed desire for the authority concerned to take up necessary actions regarding the case.

He said that on May 30, at around 1.30 pm, after buying medicines for his father Wareppam Apabi who is currently undergoing treatment at RIMS ICU, he along with one of his friends, Laishram Sunil of Langol Housing complex type 2, went to buy paan in his van.

Their vehicle had an accident with a hard topped Gypsy near Home Guard Battalion HQ at Lamphel.

The occupants of the gypsy, all dressed in civilian clothing, shoved him into their vehicle.

Basanta said that all during the commotion and while he was being pulled up into the gypsy, his friend Sunil did not even move an inch from the van nor tried to intervene even when he pleaded for help.

He further narrated that he was blindfolded and remained seated in the gypsy for around three hours during which his abductors told him that he was being taken to their camp at Maram.

Basanta explained that news of his arrest had not reached his family and he, in a fit of desperation, lied to the security personnel about some arms hidden in his house and finally got the chance to make his family aware of his condition on the night of May 31 when the AR personnel escorted him to his house to check for the supposedly hidden weapons.

The Assam Rifles finally tried to hand him over to Imphal police station on June 1 at around 9.30 pm on the pretext that he was a PREPAK (Pro) cadre and they had seized a pistol from his possession.

Basanta claimed that there was a minor standoff among the AR personnel and the police officials when the police officials at the station refused to take him in.

Taking into account the physical condition of Basanta, they however intervened when the AR personnel tried to take him away again.

The officers of Imphal police station later handed him over to Sekmai police station and he was finally produced before the Court and granted bail.

Basanta expressed suspicion that his friend Sunil might have been an AR informant who earned money by helping the security personnel arrest people and pointed out that Sunil has a brother-in-law who is an AR personnel.

Basanta added that the said AR individual has been calling his wife regularly and threatening her of dire consequences if she did not divulge his location.

He further appealed to the authority concerned to take up necessary measures to curb these kind of incidents and use of force by security personnel to intimidate the common people.