INDIA: Manipur state police officers must be investigated for two extrajudicial killings and the shooting of five bystanders

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a team of Manipur Police Commandos (MPC) shot a pregnant woman dead in front of her young son, allegedly by accident, and shot dead a young man at close range in custody. Officials claim that the man was trying to escape but eyewitnesses and photos released by media contradict this. Five other civilians were seriously injured by the gunfire. This is the latest in a series of cases that casts doubt on the manner in which people in Manipur are dying while in the custody or presence of police. 

CASE DETAILS: 

According to the information received, both deaths happened on 23 July in the heart of Imphal town. Mayanglambam Thokchom Rabina was seven-months pregnant while Chongthan Sanjeet Meitei had been taken inside a shop to be searched, and was killed inside it. Five bystanders were shot and injured (details in the letter below). 

The official version of the incident describes how a team of MPC police was conducting frisking operations in Imphal’s Khwairamband Keithel market and asked a suspicious youth to stop. It is claimed that he produced a gun, fired at the public and ran away. The report allegedly states that at Maimu Pharmacy near Gambhir Singh Shopping Arcade, the man started to shoot at the police, who returned fire and killed him. 

However a series of photographs, and bystander and media reports offer factual evidence to contradict this. A Delhi-based news magazine, Tehelka has released a series of photos that caught the entire incident on camera; they show Sanjeet being frisked by police commandos, talking calmly to the officers surrounding him, being lead into a pharmacy and his lifeless body being dragged out shortly after. The police then told the public that he was killed in a shoot out. 
They have since claimed that Sanjeet was a member of an illegal organisation operating in the state. 

The Asian Human Rights Commission is extremely concerned to hear that, on the day of these killings, at the 15th sitting of the ninth Manipur State Legislative Assembly, the State Chief Minister read out and supported a statement by Chief of Police, which noted that ‘there is no alternative way but to kill’ insurgents. The legislator audience reportedly clapped. 

It has been claimed by the officers that the pregnant Rabina was killed in a similar event on the same day when another man tried to run away while being frisked by police. During the chase, it is alleged that police opened fire and accidentally shot Rabina, as well as injuring five other civilians. Turbulent protests have since been staged against these daylight state murders and the resulting cover up. 

The AHRC is surprised and troubled that that instead of instituting a judicial inquiry into the murders, the state government has simply set up a departmental inquiry. The chances of the police department conducting an independent or impartial enquiry in this case are slim, considering the circumstances and the false claims already made and upheld in the face of dissenting evidence. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 

Growing unrest and an increase in militancy prompted the Indian government to declare parts of Manipur as ‘disturbed areas’ for a decade. The draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) was brought into use in Manipur in September 1980 and provides impunity to the officers engaged in full-scale military operations in the state. Even non-commissioned officers enjoy the authority that allows them to arrest and detain people without a warrant and kill persons on suspicion. 
Despite the use of the AFSPA the situation in Manipur has changed very little and it continues to be an area of lawlessness, ironically ruled by the security forces, with people now living in fear of dying in fake encounter killings. There is a reluctance to ask for the services of the police, adding to the breakdown of the rule of law. 

Intense local protests against the security forces and the AFSPA led to the formation of a Committee, chaired by Justice B P Jeevan Reddy, to reinvestigate the issues raised and in their report they recommended to parliament that the Act be repealed. Despite this the government has made it clear that the law may be amended but not annulled. 

Though section 46 of the Criminal Procedure Code states that if a death is caused by state forces in an encounter, which cannot be justified by this code, the officer involved in the killing is guilty of culpable homicide. Yet the MPC, which operates in four districts of Manipur- Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupur, engage in frequent killings, some in broad daylight in crowded city areas and are rarely held accountable, and even more rarely brought before the law. It is common for severely distorted versions of these occurrences to be released and upheld, even when evidence dictates otherwise. 

The MPC, which was set up in 1979, is not engaged under the AFSPA, but their use of armed force is on regular display. In 2008 alone there were 27 recorded cases of torture and killings attributed to the unit. 

SUGGESTED ACTION: 

Please send a letter to the authorities listed below expressing your concern about this case and calling for those responsible for extrajudicial killing and other abuses of the law in Manipur to be brought before it. 

Please be informed that the AHRC has written a separate letter to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions calling for an intervention into this case. 

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER