Another illegal arrest and disappearance: AHRC
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, February 23 2011:
The matter of disappearance of Longjam Suresh after he was picked by suspected security personnel has been brought up to the notice of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).
The commission has also acknowledged the receipt of the information from Human Rights Alert (HRA).
A team of military officers, suspected to be from 12 MLI, picked up Longjam Suresh from his house at Top Shipai under Wangoi PS on February 18, at about midnight, along with his neighbour Manglemba.
Manglemba was later released from custody and left blindfolded in the suburbs of Imphal city.
As for Suresh, his family does not know where he is detained, whether he is still alive or for what purpose he was arrested.
The local police have so far refused to register complaints filed by the family.
Given the widespread and recurring incidents of extrajudicial executions reported in Manipur, the family fears for the victim's life and is worried why the state government or the police is unwilling to provide any assistance in the case, the AHRC observed.
According to the Criminal Procedure Code of India, 1974, the arresting officers are mandated to inform the person arrested, as well a person of choice as instructed by the arrested person, why the arrest is made, where the person will be detained and when he will be produced before a judicial officer and at what time and place.
This information legally referred to, as the 'arrest memo', has to be in writing, made in duplicate and a copy of the same, after obtaining the signature of the person to whom the memo is served as instructed by the arrestee, has to be retained by the arresting officer.
In this case, as it is the case in almost all cases reported from Manipur, such a memo was neither prepared nor served upon the witnesses to the arrest, it observed.
A pattern observed by the AHRC from the cases reported from Manipur in the past seven years is that, in most cases when the security forces arrest a person, all legal mandates concerning search and arrest are violated.
The Supreme Court of India, in the famous DK Basu case has issued directives to the law enforcement agencies in the country about the procedures they should follow at the time of arrest and detention.
The order of the Court was subsequently incorporated into the Criminal Procedure Code, 1974 .
However these procedural formalities are daily violated in cases brought to the notice of the Court as well as to the government.
Yet, no action has been initiated in a single incident, the AHRC concerned.
The AHRC, like the family of Suresh, is afraid that Suresh will also be shot dead by the security forces who now have him in their custody.
It is illegal for the military to detain a civilian in Manipur, and they do not have such an operational mandate.
It is the responsibility of the state police to register the complaint Suresh's family wishes to file with the state police and to initiate an investigation.