The Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families Association, Manipur (EEVFAM) and Human Rights Alert (HRA) have strongly condemned the denial of prosecution sanction of some police personnel while granting prosecution sanction for some other police personnel involved in the same extrajudicial killing.
Following the direction of the Supreme Court of India, CBI/SIT investigated the case and submitted a chargesheet against accused police personnel. Out of the accused persons, four accused namely, Khondongbam Inaobi Singh, Thangkhongam Lungdim, Md Akhtar Hussain and Thokchom Krishnatombi Singh were already granted prosecution sanction by the state government in the same incident, they stated.
Subsequently, CBI gave an observation that the four accused persons are hiding and created a false story to screen their team members from the offence committed by them, which is also an offence under section 201 IPC. On further investigation, the CBI filed supplementary chargesheet against four Manipur police personnel of the then Rapid Action Police Force/CDO, Imphal West for the offence punishable under section 302, 307, 201 and 34 IPC against Nongmaithem Rameshwor Singh; Baremron Khamjai; Khundrakpam Ranjeet Singh and Leitanthem Sharat Singh.
However, the Manipur government denied prosecution sanction against the four accused vide letter no. 2/8(5)/2018-H(CBI) (EJK) 25 on December 5, 2022 by Rehanuddin Choudhury, joint secretary (Home), government of Manipur, the EEVFAM and HRA stated in the release.
It stated that in a democracy where there is rule of law the government is duty bound to ensure that no perpetrators of the crime are left scot-free and they are to be punished as per the law of the land. Such acts of the Manipur government to deny prosecution sanction to a group of perpetrators of crime while giving prosecution sanction to another group involved in the same incident is downright arbitrary and discriminatory.
EEVFAM and HRA appeal to the government that prosecution sanction be granted to all the accused against whom triable evidence have been found by the CBI/SIT so that court can conduct a fair trial to determine if they are acquitted or convicted as per the law.
