IMPHAL, March 29: The one man PG Agarwal commission of Inquiry investigating the Khwairamband firing incident involving Imphal West district police commandos leading to the death of a former UG Sanjit and a pregnant woman Rabina devi and injuring five others on July 23, 2009 would yield unsatisfactory result following the failure of the concerned police officers involved in the incident to appear personally before the commission inspite of repeated summons from the commission. This was maintained by the counsel of the commission while interacting with media persons after the conclusion of the commissions hearing today at Hotel Imphal.
He further mentioned that during the course of the hearing convened today at the commission room at Hotel Imphal, the state police department was represented by its counsel Advocate N Kumarjit who submitted a written statement on behalf of the police department wherein it was stated that the statement of witnesses and the report of Forensic Science Laboratory has made it clear that there was an incident of firing between an armed youth and two Imphal City Unit Police commandos at BT road, Imphal on July 23, 2009, in the morning at about 10:30 am and in the cross firing, a woman Rabina Devi was killed by a bullet in the cross fire and a youth namely Sajit Meitei was found death inside the godown of Social Time Emporium situated at BT road while five persons sustained bullet injuries.
Further the statement submitted by the counsel of the police also reportedly mentioned over the past activities of the deceased Sanjit who was once a member of the under ground PLA.
It may be mentioned that, state government in due pressure from the public constituted a one man commission of enquiry headed by the Retd. Justice PG Agarwal to probe into the circumstances leading to the killing of Sanjit and Rabina Devi and injuring five other at BT road firing incident on July 23, 2009, and formal hearing of the commission has started since August 27 , 2009.In the meantime, during the continued process of the hearing of the PG Agarwal Commission of enquiry statements of all five injured victims in very incident two police officers and 17 independent witnesses have been taken by the commission so far.Apart from this, the Guwahati High Court on hearing the petition filed by the mother of the late Sanjit during 2009, the court directed the very case to be handed over to the CBI for further investigation and conduct trials.
Further as per the court order, the case has been handled by the Special Court of the CBI and carried out their investigation by taking statements of all relative witnesses including the representatives of the Tahelka Megazine and finally the Special Court of the CBI has submitted their chart sheets to the state government convicting Officer In Charge of the Imphal City police station Munal and officer in charge of the Commando Imphal City Unit Devendro along with the seven personnel of the police commandos of Imphal City unit.
Besides the case has been lying pending at the Chief Judicial Magistrate Imphal.
(Newmai News Network Adds): On the concluding day of the commission hearing, senior advocate N Kumarjit Singh submitted a written argument on behalf of the police department.
A full report on the findings of the commission will be handed over to the State government sometime in the 3rd week of April, confirmed Justice (retd.) PG Agarwal today.
“From the statement of witnesses and the report of Forensic Science Laboratory, it is very clear that there was an incident of firing between an armed youth and two commando personnel at BT road, Imphal on July 23, 2009, in the morning at about 10:30 am and in the cross firing, five persons sustained bullet injuries and a woman Rabina Devi was killed by a bullet in the cross fire and a youth namely Sajit Meitei was found death inside the godown of Social Time Emporium situated at BT road,” said the written submission from the counsel of the police department.
Significantly, the sequence of photographs that appeared in Tehelka seems to point at a different story as against the claim of the police department according to which Sanjit was photographed by a local photographer while being led into a pharmacy by some police personnel before dragging him out dead.
The counsel of the police contradicted the authenticity of the photographs that appeared in Tehelka saying that a senior scientific officer and assistant chemical examiner to the government of India, CFSL, CBI, New Delhi, has confirmed that out of the 12 photographs, No. 1 to 6 were taken on July 23, 2009, at 11:47 am but photograph No. 7 was taken at the same time without mentioning the date. The expert has also been quoted as confirming that while photograph No. 8 was taken on December 23, 2008, rest of the photographs numbering from 9 to 12 were taken on July 23 at about 11:16 pm.
According to the submission of the counsel of the police, there are inconsistencies in the photographs that appeared in Tehelka.
“No tangible evidence has emerged in the enquiry to implicate any police personnel of any wrong doing in the unfortunate death of Rabina Devi and Ch Sanjit Meitei,” stated the written submission, while attesting that they both have died due to cross firing between Sanjit and the police commandos on the fateful morning of July 23, 2009.
