Imphal, December 14 2008: ON THE alleged charge of preparing a fake report of encounter in connection with an incident in which Assam Rifles personnel shot dead a man, an Assistant Commandant of Manipur Rifles has been removed from his post to facilitate his prosecution in a court.

Reliable official sources told this newspaper today that the case is related with the killing of a youth named Tayeb Ali in "fake encounter" by the troops of 17 Assam Rifles led by one captain PS Banafar accompanied by Captain Ashish in July 1999 at Motbung along the NH-39 under Kangpokpi police station.

Assistant Commandant, Abdul Latif, who then was police Inspector posted at the police station, was the investigating officer in the case.

The Assistant Commandant has been removed from his service by an order issued by the Principal Secretary (Home), PC Lawmkunga last week.

Prosecution process has been initiated after his removal from the job, the sources dislcosed.

The order that removed the police officer mentioned that he helped the accused persons (troops of Assam Rifles) involved in the case of killing a youth occurred in 1999 by manipulating dossiers of the case including FIR, documents, statements of witnesses and facts and circumstances of the incident.

On July 25, 1999, Tayeb Ali was killed in an alleged encounter by the troops of the 17 AR who set up a mobile check post in Motbung areas beyond their area of jurisdiction.

The Kangpokpi police station registered a case on the same day after Havildar Babulal of the troops reported the incident and handed over a weapon with ammunition said to have been recovered from the slain man.

The then inspector Abdul Latif as IO of the case inspected the spot and took over investigation of the case.

His final report on the case was filed in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Senapati on November 15 of the same year, 1999 .

The report stated that Tayeb Ali was coming in a Maruti Gypsy along with the driver.

When the AR troops asked them to get down for checking and verification, Tayeb Ali took out a revolver and started firing towards the AR troops on mobile check post.

It also stated that the driver escaped with the vehicle from the spot.

Later, a special situation report bearing no.0.1432 prepared on the account of the incident by Captain PS Banafar addressed to the 9 sector, made the incident appear related with an attack of firing on the CRPF at Langjing in Imphal west the same day.

It stated that on receiving information of undergrounds involved in the attack on CRPF fleeing along the Imphal-Dimapur road (NH-39), the mobile check was opened there for checking the vehicles by the troops.

When they signalled a Maruti Gypsy coming with two occupants including the driver, one of the occupants got out of the vehicle and fired upon the troops following which they retaliated resulting in killing one of them and the driver escaped with the vehicle.

The state Home Department conducted a thorough investigation after receiving a directive from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to submit an account of the killing of the man who was later identified as Tayeb Ali.

The investigation suggested that Tayeb Ali was killed in fake encounter.

The case report prepared by the then IO, Abdul Latif was based on fake report prepared after manipulating the actual and preliminary facts and circumstances of the incident as it did not match with the investigation from other angle by the authorities of the Home Department.

A board consisting of members from ballistic division of CFSL, CBI and doctors of Department of Forensic and Toxicology of AIIMS constituted to look into the case was of the joint opinion that the deceased sustained three bullet injuries, out of which two had hit him in the back and one in the right upper arm.

All bullets had passed through and were caused by missile of high velocity fire arms (7.62 SLR, AK-47, Ak-56 etc) which was fired from a distance of 3-5 feet.

The fake documents prepared by the IO included re-making of seizure memo of arms and ammunition of the case, intentional elimination of records and photographs of the deceased so as to make one unable to establish the identity of the deceased in later stage, preparation of improper inquest report by not mentioning anything about the blood found in and around the spot, number of fired cartridges recovered from the spot, setting in of rigor mortis etc.

Other allegations against the officer included showing photograph of some other dead body to the family of the deceased Tayeb Ali and pressuring them to identify him as Tayeb Ali, non-preservation of wearing apparels, samples of blood and samples of scalp of the deceased from the doctor conducting post mortem which could help in identification beyond reasonable doubt by adopting scientific means.

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