anjumanara begum
Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:01:28 -0700
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=Ne080809murder_in.asp
CURRENT AFFAIRS fake encounter
Murder In Plain Sight
In Manipur, death comes easy. In this damning sequence of photos, a local
photographer captures the death of a young man, killed in a false encounter by
the police in broad daylight, 500 metres from the state assembly. How can a
State justify such a war against its own people, asks TERESA REHMAN
1. Chongkham Sanjit, 27, is seen standing in a PCO with the
Manipur Police Commandos adjacent to a pharmacy (marked by an arrow)
in Imphal on July 23 2. Though surrounded by commandos, there
is no obvious resistance from Sanjit
(marked by a red circle))
3. Sanjit is seen calmly
walking away with the heavily armed commandos 4. While a commando reaches for
his pistol, Sanjit remains visibly calm. They are standing barely 500 metres
from the state assembly 5. Sanjit, known to be a former member of the People’s
Liberation Army, had retired on health grounds. Though
surrounded, he is calm and there seems to be no urgency
or imminent violence in the picture
6. In a sudden turn of events, Sanjit is hustled away roughly
by the commandos 7. Sanjit is dragged by the commandos into the pharmacy.
He has been surrounded by commandos for several minutes
and is obviously unarmed
8. A few minutes later, commandos drag Sanjit’s
dead body out of the pharmacy 9. Sanjit’s body is thrown into a truck. At no
point
while the camera was clicking had he offered any resistance
to the commandos
10. Sanjit’s dead body on the truck. The camera continues to click. The
commandos
make no attempt to stop the public gaze
11. The body of Rabina Devi, a pregnant bystander.
She was killed a few metres away in the police firing
when they chased a fleeing youth 12. Sanjit’s body on a stretcher.His family
claims
he had broken his earlier links with the militants
and was leading a normal life
If any picture can speak a thousand words, these photos — available exclusively
to TEHELKA — could fill volumes. They capture a shootout that happened in the
heart of Imphal, Manipur’s capital, barely 500 metres from the state assembly,
on July 23. They show the moments before, during and after the ‘encounter
killing’ of a 27-year-old Indian citizen – a young man called Chongkham Sanjit,
shot dead by a heavily-armed detachment from Manipur’s Rapid Action Police
Force, commonly known as the Manipur Police Commandos (MPC).
There is a grotesque and brutal history to the bullets that killed this young
man. For years, decades even, security forces in Manipur have faced allegations
of human rights violations and extrajudicial murders committed under cover of
the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). In 2000, Irom Sharmila,
stirred by the gunning down of 10 civilians, including an 18-year-old National
Child Bravery Award winner, by the Assam Rifles, started a hunger fast — that
lasts to this day — in protest against the AFSPA. In July 2004, the nation was
rocked by the protests of a group of Manipuri women who marched to an Assam
Rifles base in Imphal, stripped naked and raised a searing banner: “Indian Army
Rape Us”. They were protesting the rape, torture and murder, a fortnight
earlier, of Thangjam Manorama, 32, who was picked up from her home at night by
the Assam Rifles.
Manipur rose up in protest that day, and in August 2004, the Centre relented,
withdrawing the AFSPA from Imphal’s municipal zone. ‘Post-Manorama,’ as history
is marked in Manipur, the army has taken a backseat, withdrawing outside the
municipality. However, life in Manipur is still lived on the tightrope. In a
seemingly new counter-insurgency strategy, the MPC has unleashed a reign of
terror in the state.
PAST INCIDENTS
NOVEMBER, 2008:
SALAM AJIT SINGH
Singh, 30, was allegedly killed by the Imphal West Police Commandos and 39
Assam Rifles on November 7, 2008. Singh ran a taxi service. In January 2009 his
family filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
DECEMBER, 2008:
MD TASLIUMUDDIN
Tasliumuddin, 20, a daily wage labourer, was allegedly killed in an ‘encounter’
by the Imphal West Police Commandos and 32 Assam Rifles on December 30, 2008.
The NHRC has registered a case
DECEMBER 2008:
OKRAM RANJIT SINGH
Singh, 27, a brick mason was allegedly killed in an ‘encounter’ by the Imphal
West Police Commandos and 12 Maratha Light Infantry on December 22, 2008 in
Imphal West district. The family has filed a petition with the NHRC
JANUARY 2009:
LAISHRAM DIPSON
Dipson, 28, was allegedly killed by the Imphal West Police Commandos and 39
Assam Rifles on January 12, 2009 at Laingam Khul. The lorry driver’s family has
filed a police complaint
JANUARY 2009:
NINGTHOUJAM ANAND
The 30-year-old auto rickshaw driver was allegedly killed by the Imphal West
Police Commandos and 16 Assam Rifles on January 21, 2009. A complaint has been
filed with the NHRC
The organisation known as the Manipur Police Commandos (MPC) was first set up
in 1979 as the Quick Striking Force (QSF). Former Inspector General of Police,
Thangjam Karunamaya Singh told TEHELKA, “They were trained for special
operations. But the men had strict instructions. They were told to fire only
when fired upon and pay special attention to the needs of women, children and
the elderly. If they arrested somebody on suspicion, they had to take
responsibility for their security,” stated Singh.
The MPC does not fall under the AFSPA but has now become notorious across the
state. It operates only in the four districts of Manipur – Imphal East, Imphal
West, Thoubal and Bishnupur. The MPC is housed in isolated commando barracks
and has minimal contact with the general population, though its personnel are
all locals.
Extra-judicial killings, and, in particular, fake encounters by the MPC have
become common in Manipur. In 2008, there were 27 recorded cases of torture and
killing attributed to the MPC. Where once they conducted ‘encounters’ in
isolated places, they now do not think twice before operating in cities, in
broad daylight, as they did on July 23. In several incidents, innocent
civilians carrying money and valuables have been robbed and sometimes killed.
In some cases official action has been taken against commandos for misconduct.
For instance, in July 2009, five police commandos who had reportedly robbed
three youths were suspended. But for the most part, their extra-judicial
activity goes scot free.
According to the official version of Sanjit’s encounter death at 10:30am on
July 23, a team of MPC personnel was conducting frisking operations in Imphal’s
Khwairamband Keithel market. They saw a suspicious youth coming from the
direction of the Uripok locality. When asked to stop, the version goes, the
youth suddenly pulled out a gun and ran away, firing at the public in a bid to
evade the police.
The official record states that the youth was finally cornered inside Maimu
Pharmacy near Gambhir Singh Shopping Arcade. He was asked to surrender.
Instead, he fired at the police. The police retaliated and the youth was
killed. The account states that a 9mm Mauser pistol was “recovered”. The youth
was identified from his driver’s license as Chongkham Sanjit, son of Chongkham
Khelson of Kongpal Sajor Leikai, Manipur.
Usually, such official versions of encounters are difficult to disprove though
everyone may know them to be false. But in an almost unprecedented coincidence,
in Sanjit’s case, a local photographer rushed to the scene and managed to shoot
a minute-by-minute account of the alleged ‘encounter’. The photographs (shown
in preceding pages) clearly reveal that, contrary to the official version,
Sanjit was, in fact, standing calmly as the police commandos frisked him and
spoke to him. He was escorted inside the storeroom of the pharmacy. He was shot
point blank inside and his dead body was brought out. The photographer, fearing
for his safety, does not dare publish these pictures in Manipur.
The photographs clearly reveal that contrary to the official version, Sanjit
was standing calmly as the MPC commandos frisked him
Eyewitness accounts partly corroborate the police version — except their
account is obviously about a young man other than Sanjit. These witnesses state
that a youth did escape from a police frisking party about a hundred metres
away from where Sanjit was killed. The police chased this youth and opened
fire, killing an innocent bystander, Rabina Devi — who was pregnant at the time
— and injuring five other civilians. Afterwards, the police showed the media a
9mm Mauser pistol which they alleged was thrown away by the militant before he
fled. After about half an hour, the police claimed to have killed the youth who
escaped from their hands “in an encounter”; according to them, this youth was
Sanjit. The photographs clearly indicate otherwise.
The police claim Sanjit was a member of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), a
proscribed insurgent outfit. Chief Minster Okram Ibobi Singh also made a
controversial statement in the assembly that day, asserting that there was no
other alternative but to kill insurgents.
Sanjit was indeed a former PLA cadre. He was arrested in 2000 but freed. In
2006, he retired from the outfit on health grounds. In 2007, though, he was
detained again under the NSA and was only released a year later. Since then, he
had been staying with his family at his home at Khurai Kongpal Sajor Leikai and
had been working as an attendant in a private hospital.
But even if Sanjit was a former militant, he should not have have been killed
in a false encounter. The photos show him talking to his killers, calmly,
without offering any resistance. He was frisked moments before the shootout. He
was not an insurgent on the run. In fact, Sanjit had to make periodic
appearances before the Court, a requirement that the Court later lifted.
“Legally speaking, Sanjit was a free man,” says M Rakesh, a lawyer at the
Gauhati High Court’s Imphal Bench. There are also significant inconsistencies
in the police versions of the recovery of the weapon. First, they said it was
flung away by the fleeing militant. Then they said it was recovered from Sanjit
after the encounter. As the photos show, Sanjit was ushered into the pharmacy,
not chased in. Also, if Sanjit was, in fact, armed with the 9mm Mauser, why
wasn’t it found during the frisking? Why, as the photos show, was he taken
inside the storeroom?
First the police said the pistol was flung away by the fleeing militant. Then
they said it was recovered from Sanjit after the encounter
The law says if a death is caused by state forces in an encounter which cannot
be justified by Section 46 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the officer causing
the death would be guilty of culpable homicide. In this case, only a rigorous
investigation can establish what exactly transpired. Instead of instituting a
judicial enquiry, however, the state government is setting up a departmental
enquiry, which is unlikely to yield any justice to the victims’ families.
Sanjit’s family claims he had broken his earlier links with the militants and
was leading a normal life. They say he had gone out that day to buy medicines
for his uncle, who is undergoing treatment at Imphal’s JN Hospital. Says
Sanjit’s mother, Inaotombi Devi, “Life is very cheap in Manipur.”
Manipur is routinely roiled by such devastating narratives. Ex-MLA 78-yearold
Sarat Singh Loitongbam’s son Satish Singh was killed by the armed forces.
Though a devout Hindu, he refuses to perform his son’s last rites until his
name is cleared of wrongdoing. Like Satish, there is Ningombam Gopal Singh, a
39- year-old Grade-IV employee at the Imphal Bench of the Gauhati High Court, a
man who was chatting over tea with women at a hotel when he was dragged off by
men in plainclothes, to be shot dead in an ‘encounter’. There is 24-year-old
Elangbam Johnson Singh, a student and part-time salesman, picked up by the MPC
while out with a friend and killed in an encounter, his corpse at the morgue
bearing signs of torture. Stories like these are a grotesque lattice in
Manipur. “Life in Manipur,” as one observer puts it, “is like a lottery. You
are alive because you are lucky.”
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