CBI charges 10 cops for 2009 fake encounter in Manipur

IMPHAL: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the CBI on Friday submitted a chargesheet against 10 policemen in a case of alleged fake encounter of six people in 2009.

The chargesheet comes as part of a CBI investigation into 1,528 alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur between 2000 and 2012 by state police and security forces, in compliance with a Supreme Court order in 2017.

The chargesheet names then subedar I Khaba, then head constable (driver) H Premjit, constables Y Ibomcha, Pebam Sanayaima, Soibam Premjit, M Chitrajit, L Naba, P Ibomcha and O Inaoton, and havildar L Premkumar.

On the intervening night of September 7 and September 8, 2009, a team of Manipur Police commandos and troops of the 12 Maratha Light infantry killed six men - Ksh Govind, Ngasepam Danny, Md Tomba, A Oken, Md Mujibur Rehman and Md Aigar Ali - at the Awang Khunou area in Imphal West.

The chargesheet said police had falsely implicated as militants - Govind, who ran a small business; Danny, who assisted his uncle in running a paan shop; Md Tomba, a rickshaw puller; taxi drivers Oken and Rehman; and Ali, a businessman from Assam. Also, Govind and Danny were on a motorcycle and were not related to the four others who were in a car.

The chargesheet pointed out "inconsistencies" in the accounts related by the security personnel and the probe conducted by local police. While it was claimed that the commandos had fired 119 bullets and the Maratha Light Infantry troops 98 bullets, only 12 empty bullet casings were found at the alleged encounter sites, it said.

Police had said they had received information about the movement of armed militants and were stopping and frisking everyone at Awang Khunou that night. A motorcycle followed by a car was on its way from the Khumbong site. When asked to stop, the men attempted to escape and fired at the security personnel. In the ensuing five-minute 'encounter', six 'terrorists' were killed, the police version of the events stated.