Court hearing on 'July 23, 2009 Khwairamband shooting' begins
Sanjit not killed in encounter: CBI
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, January 29, 2011: CBI counsel today, on the second of hearing of the July 23, 2009 firing incident at BT Road, has argued that the incident was a clear case of "brutal murder".

The hearing to the charge sheet submitted by the CBI against nine police commandos including two inspectors accusing them of killing Chungkham Sanjit Meitei (24) on July 23, 2009 commenced yesterday in the court of Sessions Judge, Manipur East, Ph Surendra.

Another hearing was conducted today around 1 pm and a further hearing will be conducted on February 9, the judge announced.

The hearing yesterday opened with the argument of CBI counsel, senior public prosecutor AK Singh.

In his argument, he said that the incident was not an encounter but a clear case of "brutal murder".

He said unarmed Sanjit was killed by police commandos in an alleged encounter and that the pistol claimed to have been seized from him was not in his possession.

In reply to a question asked by the judge if the act of the police personnel could be justified on the ground that it was part of their official duty as they were public servants, the counsel said that the killing of Sanjit in a "fake encounter" was not part of the official duty of the police personnel.

They were to arrest him, if he was a suspect.

The CBI counsel also argued that the accused nine police personnel were not Class-I officers of the state government and there is no need of taking approval from the government to prosecute them.

This was in reply to another query of the Judge if the police personnel being public servants were discharging their official duty.

The counsel cited that there were enough examples and documents of similar cases and he assured the court to produce the same in the next hearing.

The CBI, on September 9, 2010, had chargesheeted eight police commandos and the then OC, City Police Station, Imphal under various sections of IPC in connection with the BT Road firing incident of July 23, 2009 in which Ch Sanjit and a pregnant woman Rabina Devi were killed.

The CBI was investigating into the case in response to a Writ Petition (Crl.) No.77/2009 filed by mother of Ch Sanjit.

The Gauhati High Court, Imphal Bench passed an order on August 25, 2009 to treat the complaint dated 7.8.209 of the mother as FIR, following which the City PS, Imphal (W) registered FIR dated 26.8.2009 Under Section 302/34 IPC and Section 2(3) Arms Act.

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