Rights panel summons Manipur cops

Imphal, Sept. 24: The Manipur Human Rights Commission today issued summons to two police officers in connection with the July 23 firing that killed Rabina Devi and Ch. Sanjit.
Defying the Okram Ibobi Singh government’s directive to discontinue the inquiry proceedings, the commission issued the summons to the senior superintendent of police, Imphal West, L. Kailun, and the officer-in-charge of the police commando unit of the district, Krishna Tombi Singh, asking them to appear before it on September 29 at its Lamphelpat office.
The state human rights commission took up the case after Rabina’s husband Thokchom Chinglensana lodged a complaint with it.
The government has appointed P.G. Agrawal, a retired judge of Gauhati High Court, to conduct the probe. The judicial commission was set up on August 27.
It will ascertain the circumstances leading to the incident and make recommendations to prevent such incidents in the future.
The rights panel has sought identities and particulars of the policemen who witnessed the incident.
It also directed the director-general of police, Yumnam Joykumar Singh, to submit a copy of the statement given by chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh on the floor of the Assembly in connection with the firing on the day of the incident.
In a letter dated August 26, the government asked the rights panel to stop its inquiry into the killing of the pregnant woman and the former militant on the ground that a judicial inquiry was in place to find out the circumstances leading to the deaths and injuries to five others on Bir Tikendrajit Road here.
In his statement, Ibobi Singh, who is also the home minister, told the House that indiscriminate firing by Sanjit killed Rabina Devi and wounded five others.
Ibobi Singh said Sanjit had fired at a police frisking party and was killed in retaliatory fire.
The Apunba Lup, a conglomeration of NGOs, has decided not to depose before the judicial commission and called the process a meaningless exercise.

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