The Special Judge (NIA), Imphal West on Tuesday released Mark Haokip, a self-styled president of secessionist outfit on bail upon furnishing a PR bond of Rs 2 lakh with two sureties (gazetted officer) of the like amount.
The court opined that the stage in the main case is coming for charge-consideration. By the submission of the supplementary charge-sheet, the investigation of the case is completed and in such a situation, further custody of the accused would not be necessary, the court added.
“Like the supreme Court held that "An accused person who enjoys freedom is in a much better position to look after his case and to properly defend himself than if he were in custody", it would be just and fair to let the accused be on bail so as to defend himself properly”, stated the court.
The court had kept the bail order reserved on March 24 and announced it on Tuesday.
Mark Thangmang Haokip was arrested by Manipur Police from Kishangarh, New Delhi on May 24, 2022 before he was brought to Imphal on May 27.
Under section 120-B/121/121-A/123/400 IPC & 17/18 UA(P) Act, Mark Haokip was on May 30, 2022 remanded into police custody and was remanded into judicial custody on June 9, 2022. He applied for bail but was rejected by the court on June 21, 2022. Further, he approached the High Court of Manipur which was also rejected again on November 2, 2022.
In the meantime, a chargesheet was submitted against him under section 120-B/121/121A/123/400/511 IPC & Sec.17/18 UA(P)Act on November 25, 2022 with a rider that supplementary charge-sheet will be submitted at the earliest after prosecution sanctions, due documents and evidences are received from the competent authorities.
The court, after hearing the submission of counsels, stated that it is not disputed that sanctions were not taken and filed for prosecuting under sections 120-B/121/121-A/123/511 IPC and section 17/18 UAP) Act while submitting the first chargesheet.
The court also found that while registering the case by prosecutor and assigning a case number, it appears that cognizance was not taken, but registered the case as sessions trial case so as to consider the matter when proper sanctions etc are being filed by way of supplementary charge-sheet or so. The charge- sheet was in a way not complete for want of sanctions for other offences but not for section 400 IPC. However, as no cognizance was also taken under section 400 IPC, it may be impliedly presumed that no cognizance was taken under section 400 IPC also, the court stated.
Further, it is also important to mention here that by way of filing supplementary chargesheet enclosing due sanctions, there is no issue of taking cognizance of the offences. The stage in the main case thus would be of charge consideration, the court said.
The court, while releasing Mark Thangmang Haokip @Mark T Haokip, imposed conditions that he shall not abscond but present himself before the court on every date(s) fixed; that he shall not influence prosecution witness(es) so as to dissuade the witness(es) from disclosing facts before the court; that he shall not leave the state of Manipur without prior permission of the court, and he shall not commit a similar offence while on bail.
The main chargesheet was filed against Mark Thangmang Haokip (37), S/o Limkhosei Haokip of Molnom village, Churachandpur on November 24, 2022.
It may be mentioned that the main chargesheet stated that Mark Thangmang Haokip was actively present in social media and his posts from time to time revealed that he was not only anti-government but also abetted and instigated common people to fight against the government and his acts were tantamount to hatching conspiracy or attempting to commit or advocate acts of terrorism.
He was also allegedly raising funds from different individuals for use in carrying out various terrorist activities. His outfit (GPDRK) was allegedly working toward destabilising the country which is a threat to the security of the state. Through his alleged propaganda and instigation, he had mobilised people to obstruct a tree plantation programme at Thangjing Hills, potentially causing tension between communities in the state.
Also in April, 2022, in defiance of the Manipur Government order, the accused had instigated people to obstruct officials of the Forest Department and Art & Culture Department who went to a reserved forest area in Koubru range for survey. The chargesheet also mentions that the group led by the accused was running a website under the domain name www.kukigovt.com to propagate their ideas and hatch a conspiracy against the government.
Investigation allegedly established that the accused was also found guilty of forging documents for use in applying for an Indian passport.
