A 20 Assam Rifle personnel sustained injury after an unidentified individual assaulted him at the Tengnoupal checkpoint along the Imphal-Moreh road around 12 noon on Friday.
According to sources, the individual who drove a four-wheeler vehicle (Tata Safari) hit an electric pole at the checkpoint in reverse gear which led to a heated argument between the individual and the AR personnel on duty at the checkpoint.
The Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) on duty tried to reason with the individual but a scuffle broke out after the man held the collar of the AR personnel who was on duty and hit him in his face, the sources said.
The JCO undertook medical aid at the AR Unit Hospital and was administered stitches for a cut on his lower lips. The jawan had lodged a complaint at the Tengnoupal police station, the sources added.
The complaint stated: "At 12.01 pm on December 16, a Blue Tata Safari with registration no MNO1 AS7046 arrived at Mobile Vehicle Check Post (MVCP) at Tengnoupal from Imphal. A rifle woman (general duty) who was on duty at the time directed the driver to park the subject vehicle in the Checking Enclosure. However, the driver took the vehicle ahead of the Checking Enclosures and rashly reversed the vehicle into the Enclosure at high speed, hitting an electric pole from the vehicle’s rear. This caused the vehicle’s rear light to break, making a dent in the vehicle body and damaging government property, i.e. CCTV Camera and Security Light mounted on the Pole.”
On witnessing the incident, a naib subedar (general duty) on duty at the MVCP came to the spot and asked the driver to step out of the vehicle at which the driver stepped out and angrily asked the JCO if he is from the Traffic Police, it maintained.
“He said that he will park the vehicle however he wants,” it added.
Then the JCO told him that he might have hurt a commuter in the incident and asked him to provide proof of identification but the individual refused to do so and threatened the naib subedar to “ensure that he is sent home and his uniform taken off”. In doing so the individual had willfully obstructed a uniformed soldier from performing his military duty in an operational counter-insurgency area, it continued.
“The individual also claimed that his paternal uncle is a high-ranking officer and that he will call his uncle. On witnessing the argument, a few other soldiers on duty nearby came to the spot,” it read.
The FIR also stated that during the argument, a female passenger of the vehicle tried to come closer and grab the JCO. Then the naib subedar told the riflewoman to take the female away from the spot, however as the riflewoman tried to do so, the female individual pushed her away, it maintained.
“While naib subedar was still trying to reason with the male individual to produce proof of identity, the individual tried to grab the JCO’s collar and then hit him in the face, causing him to start bleeding profusely. At this moment, the nearby soldiers pulled away the male individual and restrained him to prevent him from hitting the JCO again. The riflewoman attempted to convince the female individual to get away from the spot, however, the female individual threw a punch at the riflewoman and threatened that she will break the riflewoman’s arm,” the FIR added.
Meanwhile, Kuki Students Organisation (KSO) Tengnoupal secretary Danial Mate in a press meet at Tengnoupal, cautioned to launch a strong agitation “if the Assam Rifles personnel do not stop harassing the people travelling along the Imphal-Moreh road by Christmas”.
The acts of harassment carried out by the AR to the people along the road have crossed the limit of toleration, he said. “There was an instance in which one patient died when the Assam rifles unnecessarily blocked an Ambulance. Besides, the incident of torturing a lady IPS officer by AR remains unsettled,” he added.
Referring to the incident of the scuffle between the AR personnel and the individual and the BSF officer, he strongly condemned the incident of “the AR personnel thrashing a BSF officer on leave in front of his wife and the public”.
The government should intervene in the incident and stop AR from causing harassment to the people travelling along the Imphal-Moreh road, he added.
