Murdering justice
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: February 18 , 2014 -

"Tarikh pe tarikh, tarikh pe tarikh, tarikh pe tarikh milte hai, par insaaf nahi milta"

This popular dialogue from a Hindi film summed up succinctly how the Indian judiciary system functions and thrives on - not on delivering prompt justice to the aggrieved complainants, but on the various tactics employed for delaying disposal of cases on one pretext or the other.

But now, one can safely conclude that Indian judiciary system also thrives on not just on ordinate delay in disposal of cases but also on withholding pronouncement of the final verdict deliberately under pressures or simply otherwise.

This is exactly what is happening in the infamous triple murder case of Dr Thingnam Kishan, the then Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of Kasom Khullen, Ukhrul and his two subordinate staffs namely driver Aribam Rajen Sharma and Revenue Mandal Yumnam Token by one 'lieutenant colonel' Hopeson Ningshen of NSCN-IM and his cronies.

Even after a long wait of five years from the day the mortal remains of the three brutally murdered victims were found at a place in Senepati district on January 17, 2009 four days after they have been abducted from Ukhrul district headquarters and the completion of a three-year long trial by a special court of CBI, justice remains a still a distant dream for the bereaved family members.

From the unannounced official tour that Justice V.K Gupta of the CBI Special Court needed to undertake just a couple of days ahead of January 18, 2014, the date he himself had fixed first for the pronouncement of the final verdict after a three-long year trial of the case to the subsequent deferment of the delivering the final judgment first from January 25 to February 15 and now to some date in March again, it is becoming evidently clear that there is more than the eyes could see and the ears could hear in this vicious judicial exercise of fixing a date for delivering the final judgment only to be postponed again later on.

As the 5th death anniversary of Dr Thingnam Kishan and his two subordinate staffs was observed on January 17 at Uripok Laikhurembi Shanglen, the sense of despondency that enveloped the people present on the occasion was palpable.

Whether justice would be ever delivered to the murdered trio was the one thought that remained overriding in their minds.

If the delay in delivering justice even after completion of the trial and fixing of date for pronouncement of the final verdict at least three times has got anything to do with the imminent resumption of the sometime-hot-and-sometime-cold peace parleys between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM), and the Special Court of CBI is under some sort of undue pressures from performing its normal duty, then it is a great misfortune for all the people in this democratic country called India, as such acts of undue interference amounts to murdering the justice itself.