INDIA: Father shot to prevent prosecution of police officers

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that on 10 June 2010, Mr. Thokchom Nimai Singh, father of Thokchom Inao was shot in front of his house at about 10.30 at night. Nimai Singh was pursuing a case against Manipur State Police Commando Officers who had shot dead his son Inao on 30 July 2009. Nimai Singh is currently undergoing treatment for his injuries and his condition is critical and is in a state of coma. The family suspects the state police and the 28 Assam Rifles for being behind the incident. 

CASE DETAILS: 

On 10 June at about 10.15 at night an unidentified person came to Nimai Singh’s house and knocked at the front door. When Nimai Singh opened the door, the person verified whether it is Nimai he is speaking to and then asked the light in the front portico to be turned off. Then he asked Nimai to come along with him to show directions to the house of Mr. Nando Singh. Nimai refused to go out of the house since he was sick. Without uttering anything further the unidentified person pointed a gun at Nimai and shot him at a close range. The projectile hit Nimai from the front near his nose and exited through his throat. 

As the assailant fled the scene, Nimai fell down. The family immediately took him to Shija Hospital and Research Institute at Langol in Imphal. Nimai is in a state of coma and his situation remains critical. 

The Manipur State Police Commando Unit and officers attached to 28 Assam Rifles stationed in Manipur on 30 July 2009 arrested Nimai’s son, Thokchom Inao alias Herojit Singh was arrested by officers from the Manipur State Police Commando Unit from Inao’s elder sister’s house. The officers in civilian dress, pretending to be the members of a prohibited militant organisation, the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), came in an unmarked white vehicle to Inao’s elder sister Athokpam Ongbi Sanahanbi Devi’s house in Pangaltabi Awang Leikai where Inao was staying at the time. 

Inao was an agricultural labourer working with a power tiller owned by his brother-in-law. It was about 6pm and Inao had just returned from work and had taken a shower and was resting in the front porch veranda when the officers marched into the house. They confirmed whether Inao is the person who is in the veranda and dragged him into the vehicle by force. Inao’s sister who was at home, pleaded with the officers to let her brother go. The officer refused and drove away. 

The next day the police informed the family that Inao was shot dead in an armed encounter along the public road connecting Waithou and Thiyam. To justify the murder, a case against Inao was registered at Lilong Police Station accusing Inao as a member of the armed militant group, UNLF, and that the police and 28 Assam Rifles had shot dead Inao when he and his colleagues fired at the security forces who confronted them while on patrol duty. 

Officer Mr. Ksh. Prakash Singh had given the statement to the Lilong police after the incident. However, the Officer-in-Charge of Lilong Police Station had recorded in the case file that “certified that the deceased Thokchom Inao alias Herojit Singh, aged 27 years, son of Th. Nimai Singh of Chilai Awang Leikai is not a hardcore member of the UNLF. The fact is true to the best of my knowledge.” 

On 3 September 2009, Nimai Singh went to the Sugnu Police Station to file a complaint against the officers he suspected who are involved in the murder of his son and the registering of the fabricated case against his deceased son. The Officer-in-Charge of the police station refused to register the complaint and gave the excuse that he required a direction from the Director General of Police to register the complaint. 

On 7 September Nimai Singh filed a complaint at the office of the Superintendent of Police in Thoubal district and at the office of the Director General of Police, Manipur requesting the officers to initiate an inquiry concerning the murder of his son. The officers took no actions upon the complaints. 

Against the wilful inaction of the police officers, Nimai approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) as well as the Guwahati High Court seeking redress to his complaints. The NHRC admitted the case as File Number 5/14/12/2010-FE and directed the Secretary of the Union Home Ministry; the Director General of Police, Manipur; District Magistrate Thoubal district and the Senior Superintendent of Police Thoubal to conduct investigation of the case. The NHRC also directed the police to forward to it a copy of the post-mortem report as well as a report after holding a magisterial inquiry into the incident within eight weeks. This case is posted for hearing to 4 September 2010. 

The case filed before the Guwahati High Court was also admitted to records as Writ Petition 31/2010. Among other things Nimai had requested the High Court to direct the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) an investigation agency functioning under the Central Government to investigate the case, which require the state government to hand over the case files to the CBI. 

The Executive Magistrate of Lilong issued a public notification dated 12 May 2010 calling upon all interested parties to appear before the Magistrate to give evidence in the inquiry the Magistrate had initiated as per the directions of the NHRC. The Magistrate had also ordered that anyone wishing to provide any evidence concerning the murder of Inao could furnish evidence in the form of an affidavit to the Magistrate on or before 27 May 2010. Accordingly Nimai filed an affidavit before the Magistrate naming five other witnesses to the incident involving his son’s murder. 

On 11 June, a day after Nimai was shot, two persons visited Nimai’s house claiming that they are from the media. But the two unknown persons threatened Nimai’s family that if Nimai survived, he will be shot again. But before the two unidentified persons could leave, by sheer chance police officers from Sugunu Police Station came to Nimai’s house. The police officers could apparently identify the two unidentified persons as their fellow officers working with the State Police Commando Unit. It was thus by sheer chance that the disguise of the two police officers who visited the family to threaten them was blown. 

Nimai’s family strongly suspects that the Manipur State Police Commando Unit and officers of the 28 Assam Rifles is behind Inao’s murder and the attempted murder of Nimai. The family and other witnesses in the case are now in a terrified and traumatised state and are seeking help to safeguard their life and at the same time support to pursue the case Nimai has initiated. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: 

Manipur is in a state of complete turmoil due to the alarming number of extrajudicial executions happening in the state. The administration has so far failed to prevent state sponsored murder in the state, and on the contrary have been an active collaborator. A report by the AHRC on Manipur entitled INDIA: The state of the republic is showcased in Manipur analyses the issue in detail. 

The AHRC has reported 14 cases of extrajudicial execution from Manipur in the past 16 months. These are cases that are reported to the AHRC in detail through its partner network. While there is no systematic and credible information concerning the exact number of extrajudicial executions that have happened in the state so far, the only credible indicator to the magnitude of the problem is the public statement made by the Director General of Police Mr. Joykumar Singh in November 2009 that his officers have killed 260 persons in eleven months in the state through extrajudicial means. The officer of course iterated that that all those who have been murdered by his force are terrorists. 

The NHRC and the Supreme Court of India have issued directions to the state governments and the union government, the procedures to be followed in cases of extrajudicial executions, more commonly known as encounter killings in India. The directions are such to reasonably rule out the possibility of the state agencies covering up murder in the excuse of combating militancy or terrorism. This includes conducting a magisterial inquiry each time a case of extrajudicial execution happens and the video recording the autopsy. The report of the magisterial inquiry and that of the autopsy are to be sent in each case to the NHRC for its review. So far Manipur has systematically failed to comply with this directives, like many other states. 

The laxity to follow directives issued by the NHRC and the Court by the state agencies is partially because of the failure of the NHRC and that of the Court to insist compliance of its orders by the governments. The fact that the Director General of Police in Manipur has publically admitted that his officers are behind at least 260 extrajudicial executions in 2009 alone was brought to the attention of the NHRC by the AHRC as early as December 2009. Yet according to the information available to the AHRC, the NHRC is yet to demand from the government of Manipur a comprehensive report concerning each of the 260 cases from the Manipur state government. 

The non-following of the procedures by the government is exploited by the state agencies, in particular the police. It is commonly reported from India that its police officers do not find any form of deterrent from them committing crimes, including murder. The AHRC has reported cases where police officers are suspected to have murdered innocent persons for mere promotions or for extorting money from Manipur itself. Each of these cases, according to the police or the agency behind the murder, are of persons that the state agencies claim having association with militant organisations. There has never been a single attempt either by the state administration or by the Union Government to conduct an inquiry to find the truth behind the claim that the murdered civilian is in fact killed in an armed encounter or not. 

The case of Thokchom Rabina and Sanjeet Meitei proves this point. The case was brought to national attention through media coverage and the appeal and statement issued by the AHRC. After much reluctance the state government ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. The officers involved in the case are yet to be punished according to the information available to the AHRC. 

SUGGESTED ACTION: 
Please send a letter to the authorities listed below expressing your concern about this case and calling for an investigation into both cases. The AHRC is writing a separate letter to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions calling for an intervention into this case. 

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