SC inquiry Commission report lists state police's loopholes in reports and its investigations.
IMPHAL, July 16: The much awaited inquiry report of the Supreme Court appointed Commission on extra-judicial execution of six alleged cases of extra-judicial execution were today handed over to the family members of those who died in the said cases at the office of the Human Rights Alert.
“There is no doubt that insurgency in Manipur state is a reality. But the continous use of the AFSPA for decades in Manipur has evidently had little or no effect on the situation. On the other hand, the six cases, which have been shown to be not real encounters, are egregious examples of the AFSPA’s gross abuse”, said the recommendation of the report submitted by the 3 member Commission led by Justice Hegde. The commission had submitted the report to the Supreme Court on March 30, 2013.
It may be mentioned that the Supreme Court of India on January 4 had appointed the commission with a direction to make a thorough inquiry in the first six cases with a further direction to the commission to record a finding regarding the past antecedents of the victims and the circumstances in which they were killed.
The SC had also directed the commission to report regarding the functioning of the state police and security forces in Manipur and the Commission said in its report that 'it finds that the actions of the police or the security forces transgressed legal bounds, the commission should make its recommendations for keeping the police and the security forces within the legal bounds without compromising the fight against insurgency.'
Addressing the gathering after the handing over of the report to the families, Human Rights Alert executive director, Babloo Loitongbam said the report clearly shows that all the six cases of encounter are fake and that the families of all victims should get justice. He further added that the Supreme Court has further fixed the next hearing of the case on August 6, 2013.
Elaborating further, he said that the Human Rights’ Alert and the Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association (EEVFAM) will further file a petition on this case before the date fixed by the court and further appealed to the general public to submit their suggestions and views to HRA or EEVFAM.
Speaking to media persons, Lata the mother of the case number 2 victim Orshonjit said that she is happy on receiving the recommendation report of the commission.
The report has recommended that there is no doubt that insurgency in the state is a reality, but the continued used of the AFSPA for decades in state has little or no effect on the situation and all the six cases were shown to be not real encounters, are egregious example of AFSPA’s gross abuse.
The report had further said the Jeevan Reddy Committee to Review the Armed Forces (SpI) Powers Act, after its own hearings, found that AFSPA had become "a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness". The commission has carefully gone through the said report and is in respectful agreement with the same”.
The list of recommendations further said that during the inquiry it is seen that all the cases of encounter invariably have a Section or two of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 included in the FIR which means that these cases are to be investigated by police officers not below the rank of Dy. SP (SDPO in the state of Manipur).
"But the six cases being inquired into by the Commission have been under investigation for years. In one case the present IO is the sixth in the series and out of 2713 cases registered in the last five year attracting the provision of the UAPA, only 13 cases have been charge sheeted and the remaining 2700 cases are still under investigation,' it said.
The report further recommended that all the cases of encounters resulting in death be investigated by the CID, by officers not below the Rank of Deputy SP and Additional SP and for this purpose the CID Manipur has to be suitable strengthened within the stipulated time of six months and the investigation of the cases of encounters being handled by the CID be reviewed every month by an officer not below the Rank of DIG of CID.
The report also recommended the formation of Special Investigation teams to investigate all cases of UAPA (Unlawful Activities [Prevention].
It also proposed that all cases of encounter resulting in death be reviewed once in three months by a committee chaired by the Head of the State Human Rights Commission with the Principal Secretary Home and DG of the state as members. The review will be confined to seeing if there are valid grounds to continue the investigation.
The Commission repprt pointed out various loopholes in the functioning of police procedures and went on to say 'there is a serious lapse on the part of police during their operations and the investigation. Some of the lapses were vast differences between the bullets fired by the police and the empty cases recovered by them from the scene of crime with the required efforts not being made by the police to the search the scene of occurrence for the empty cases. In many cases, post-mortem were conducted after a gap some days after the incident which can result in loss of vital clues owing the physiological changes in the dead.' The Commission in its recommendation mentioned that the post mortem of the encounter cases should be conducted as quickly as possible after the incident and the proceedings invariably video graphed.
“There is no doubt that insurgency in Manipur state is a reality. But the continous use of the AFSPA for decades in Manipur has evidently had little or no effect on the situation. On the other hand, the six cases, which have been shown to be not real encounters, are egregious examples of the AFSPA’s gross abuse”, said the recommendation of the report submitted by the 3 member Commission led by Justice Hegde. The commission had submitted the report to the Supreme Court on March 30, 2013.
It may be mentioned that the Supreme Court of India on January 4 had appointed the commission with a direction to make a thorough inquiry in the first six cases with a further direction to the commission to record a finding regarding the past antecedents of the victims and the circumstances in which they were killed.
The SC had also directed the commission to report regarding the functioning of the state police and security forces in Manipur and the Commission said in its report that 'it finds that the actions of the police or the security forces transgressed legal bounds, the commission should make its recommendations for keeping the police and the security forces within the legal bounds without compromising the fight against insurgency.'
Addressing the gathering after the handing over of the report to the families, Human Rights Alert executive director, Babloo Loitongbam said the report clearly shows that all the six cases of encounter are fake and that the families of all victims should get justice. He further added that the Supreme Court has further fixed the next hearing of the case on August 6, 2013.
Elaborating further, he said that the Human Rights’ Alert and the Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association (EEVFAM) will further file a petition on this case before the date fixed by the court and further appealed to the general public to submit their suggestions and views to HRA or EEVFAM.
Speaking to media persons, Lata the mother of the case number 2 victim Orshonjit said that she is happy on receiving the recommendation report of the commission.
The report has recommended that there is no doubt that insurgency in the state is a reality, but the continued used of the AFSPA for decades in state has little or no effect on the situation and all the six cases were shown to be not real encounters, are egregious example of AFSPA’s gross abuse.
The report had further said the Jeevan Reddy Committee to Review the Armed Forces (SpI) Powers Act, after its own hearings, found that AFSPA had become "a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness". The commission has carefully gone through the said report and is in respectful agreement with the same”.
The list of recommendations further said that during the inquiry it is seen that all the cases of encounter invariably have a Section or two of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 included in the FIR which means that these cases are to be investigated by police officers not below the rank of Dy. SP (SDPO in the state of Manipur).
"But the six cases being inquired into by the Commission have been under investigation for years. In one case the present IO is the sixth in the series and out of 2713 cases registered in the last five year attracting the provision of the UAPA, only 13 cases have been charge sheeted and the remaining 2700 cases are still under investigation,' it said.
The report further recommended that all the cases of encounters resulting in death be investigated by the CID, by officers not below the Rank of Deputy SP and Additional SP and for this purpose the CID Manipur has to be suitable strengthened within the stipulated time of six months and the investigation of the cases of encounters being handled by the CID be reviewed every month by an officer not below the Rank of DIG of CID.
The report also recommended the formation of Special Investigation teams to investigate all cases of UAPA (Unlawful Activities [Prevention].
It also proposed that all cases of encounter resulting in death be reviewed once in three months by a committee chaired by the Head of the State Human Rights Commission with the Principal Secretary Home and DG of the state as members. The review will be confined to seeing if there are valid grounds to continue the investigation.
The Commission repprt pointed out various loopholes in the functioning of police procedures and went on to say 'there is a serious lapse on the part of police during their operations and the investigation. Some of the lapses were vast differences between the bullets fired by the police and the empty cases recovered by them from the scene of crime with the required efforts not being made by the police to the search the scene of occurrence for the empty cases. In many cases, post-mortem were conducted after a gap some days after the incident which can result in loss of vital clues owing the physiological changes in the dead.' The Commission in its recommendation mentioned that the post mortem of the encounter cases should be conducted as quickly as possible after the incident and the proceedings invariably video graphed.
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