Not licensed to kill but ... Now get the killers !
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 11 2018 -

Not licensed to kill, but it seems they killed at will.

This is what has emerged from the FIRs lodged by the CBI-SIT against a number of police personnel under instructions from the Supreme Court of India, following the petition filed by EEVFAM and HRA listing more than 1000 cases of alleged custodial killings.

Stage managed, is the charge levelled by EEVFAM and HRA and one is instantly reminded of the day when the Santosh Hegde Commission roared ‘How can a 14 year old be a terrorist ?’

The last word is yet to be said but the ground situation here in Manipur has seen a drastic change after the Supreme Court took up the case sometime in 2012.

As media professionals engaged in bringing news to the readers every day, one can certainly recall the days when reports of ‘encounters’ routinely made it to the front page of the newspaper on a regular basis.

One common line that accompanied all these stories was ‘Troops/cops were fired upon and so and so was killed in the retaliatory firing that followed.’

In fact so common had it become that there were jokes that did the round all centering on such encounters.

It is in such a situation that security personnel have been maintaining the line that they need some sort of a legal protection to dispense with their duties and thus the Armed Forces Special Powers Act continues to be imposed in Manipur and the North Eastern States and Jammu and Kashmir.

The alleged fake encounters apart, there have also been instances of mass killing by the men in uniform after a skirmish or two with militants.

RIMS massacre, Malom mass killings that gave birth to the crusader Irom Chanu Sharmila, Heirangoithong, Tonsen Lamkhai, Oinam outrage. These are but just some cases.

Gallantry medals and by extension career prospect.

The link between gallantry awards and the excesses or plain murder by men in uniform may best be demonstrated by the fact that of the 7 cops charge-sheeted two are decorated police personnel.

What makes this all that more interesting is the fact that out of the two one was a member of a proscribed outfit, having passed the basic military training course of the outfit on May 12, 1999 and allotted Army number 919 of the said outfit.

Did the State Government recruit him with the knowledge that he was a member of a proscribed outfit ?

This question is important and should be taken beyond the ongoing investigation to see whether some personnel of the State Police have been supping with proscribed outfits or not.

What makes the case even more intriguing is the fact that the two personnel were decorated with gallantry awards with one receiving the Chief Minister’s Police Medal, not once but twice and the President’s Police Medal.

The other too was a recipient of a gallantry award. Gallantry award and now being booked by the CBI for alleged extra-judicial killings.

A reflection that the State Government had for long been churning out killing machines and acknowledging their ‘devotion to duty’ with police medals, which in turn would have helped them climb the police hierarchy.

Now that the CBI has booked some police personnel, it is only right that the Government goes after them and at least give comfort to the people that justice has been delivered.