The great revelation

Samarjit Kambam *

Protest against "23/7 BT Road ShootOut" at Delhi on August 14 2009 :: Pix - Salam Chinglenkhomba

Fake encounter is nothing new to the people of Manipur. In fact, it has become more of a part and parcel in the collective psyche of the public of our state of Manipur. Many innocent lives were lost during many histrionic events of fake encounter which has been going for years.

At one point of time, awards, be it bravery, gallantry or whatsoever were given to the cops with the highest figure of killings at his stride behind the shield of AFSPA 1958 where the higher percentage of those killed were innocents even if they were officially termed as militants or insurgents. Bravery of a cop was considered directly proportional to the number of persons killed by him be it innocent or otherwise.

As the noose of the Supreme Court is tightening on fake encounters, past or present, many cops who were considered 'top' or 'elite' cops were stripped of their elite status in 2013. The crackdown by Supreme Court on fake encounter and those involved in it can be termed as a healthy trend for a just society where people can live without trauma and fear.

As a divine intervention, gallantry award winner and Head Constable of Manipur Police by the name of Thangjam Herojit revealed at the CBI Court that he himself shot Sanjit to death in cold blood after dragging him inside the Maimu Pharmacy at BT Road. Its really painful to imagine how Sanjit must have felt at those brief moments when he knew that he was about to be killed anyway.

Herojit also confessed that he shot Sanjit in 'cold blood' as he was carrying out order given by his superior officer Dr RK Jhaljit, the then Addl Supdt of Police, Imphal West. And how can the act of killing not be cold blooded? Herojit had already killed more than 133 persons. That's official figure only, the real figure may be many times more than that.

His confession has startled the people of Manipur accompanied by great shock at the ugly nexus and dirty games played by security forces, politicians and other big-shot bureaucrats as well as the diabolical and sorry system of governance of the state from the top to the bottom.

The confession by Herojit requires great audacity. In Manipur, as receipt of awards be it gallantry or otherwise were being given to the cops who kill the highest number of insurgents out of which many are innocent, the cops thus become trigger happy and cold blooded just for the sake of receiving award or getting promotion. The recent intervention by the Supreme Court has mitigated this monstrous system to some extent.

Bravery comes in many forms. Forgiveness is also a kind of bravery. And most of all revealing the truth is also a kind of bravery of the highest order. Of late, the people of the state of Manipur have been flabbergasted, like a jolt from the blue by the sensational revelations of Herojit which has become the talk of the town and the hottest topic as of now.

As a twist of fate by the heavenly fingers or nature taking its own course, the case of this particular fake encounter which was swept under the carpet since July 23, 2009 with the repressive state government jumped out in the limelight. Now, skeleton has started tumbling down from the cupboard and many high-profile hot shots can't hide from the blinding light of justice, courtesy the CBI. Even if Sanjit cannot be brought back to life, now the family of the slained Sanjit must have heaved a sigh of relief at this turn of events.

The public, since the very day of 23/7 killing of Sanjit had already known that it was a fake encounter, something not new, an event that has been considered as a part of life by the people of Manipur.

However, a fracture in the hierarchal set-up of deceit, repression of justice by the very system have emerged, an old pattern of injustice getting distorted, a portion of a fortress of deceit which was once considered as impenetrable stumbling down, a can of worms in the governance open, all due to the bold confessions of Herojit. Now, Herojit's confession has turned out more as a Domino's Effect where every entity from the first to the last gets affected.

The startling question in everybody's mind is, "Why did Herojit make such a bold confession when his higher ups had given him backing to him all these years?". The reason involves a lot of "maybe's". Maybe he has got sick with the rotting system of exploitation by the higher officials to the lower, the deceit, corruption and nepotism and has lost faith in the system, even if he knew that danger has been lurking around him at every step he takes.

Maybe he's tired of looking back behind his shoulder every moment, maybe he got fed up with all the killings and bloodshed and want to lead the life of a good Samaritan, maybe he has realised that he had been used as a pawn all these years just to meet the selfish needs of his superiors.

The govt and JD(U) had announced for providing security for him. The mammoth question is "security coverage from whom?" – from the insurgents or from the very system in which he is a part of? The insurgents might even forgive him for his honest revelation and confession of truth. It is the system itself that comes like 'fear of the dark'.

To prevent the higher-ups from being exposed, the system can do anything, can go to any extent to muffle and silence him, such as sending hit men to do the needful, so that no further skeletons from the system's cupboard tumbles down, to save the face of the system from more uglier and embarrassing situations or even accuse him with one of the many nasty phrases such as "He has linkage with insurgents" just like placing a 9 mm pistol at Sanjit's dead corpse.

Realising that he is between the devil and the deep sea, it has turned out more as a pyrrhic victory to him making him feel like a stranger in a strange land.

That may be the reason why he had announced that he requires no security coverage. He also revealed that his seven other counterparts are innocent. A very audacious act, I should say, a courage not all cops possess.

He has even accepted punishment by the public or related authorities, again one bold statement that needs extra courage to make. Handling him to the public is against the law as it will give rise to mobocracy. Let the law take its own course of action by bringing to book his higher ups who ordered him to take Sanjit's life.

If the case of Sanjit's death was not taken up by CBI, the event would have faded away into oblivion. Tehelka magazine's people behind the scene also took a great role in bringing out the truth as photographs taken before Sanjit was killed in cold blood provide proofs as strong supporting evidence in this case.