Shillong, Nov 17: The state government has spent over Rs 20 lakh on Justice (retired) T Vaiphei, who was at the final stage of submitting the report on Mukroh firing incident but in the name of CBI inquiry, both Assam and Meghalaya governments had decided to wind up the probe.
The incident on November 22 last year had resulted in the death of five Meghalaya civilians and one home guard from Assam.
The Assam judicial inquiry panel into the incident headed by Justice (retired) Rumi Kumari Phukan had submitted the report to the Assam government on September 20 but the decision on September 30 by both the chief ministers to hand over the case to the CBI has made the report irrelevant.
It is yet to be known how much Assam spent for its commission.
According to the reply given on November 7 to the RTI query on October 10 by Meghalaya Monitor, honorarium paid to Vaiphei from November 23, 2022 till August 31 this year is Rs 20, 38,667.
The advocate assisting the commission, Jopmiki Shylla was paid Rs 2, 20,000.
Reply silent on Delhi lawyers
However, the political department has failed to provide the expenditure on lawyers brought from Delhi by the state government to appear before the commission.The flight charges and the money spent for their stay in Marriot Hotel have not been released.
Though Assam government had cooperated with the Meghalaya judicial inquiry commission, the reply said that no ‘information is available’ regarding the matter.
However, the records with the Meghalaya commission show that Assam officials cooperated with the Vaiphei panel unlike the misleading statements of Assam and Meghalaya chief ministers about the lack of cooperation.
However, it is a fact that Meghalaya did not coperate with the Assam judicial commission which may have compelled Assam to reiterate the need to have the CBI inquiry into the matter as Assam perceived it as a humiliation.
When contacted, Vaiphei refused to comment on the matter.
Govt yet to denotify commission
The public information officer (PIO) also said the government is yet to denotify the commission.
The PIO has also failed to provide copies and orders of the commission, besides the copies of the affidavits filed before the panel by all the concerned parties by saying that ‘information not available’
CBI probe was supposed to be parallel
Curiously, both the governments had taken up with Delhi the need to have CBI probe on November 23 last year, a day after the incident and they had also gone ahead with instituting two judicial inquiries which meant that the task of the CBI was to have a parallel inquiry, otherwise there was no necessity to have two different commissions.
Faulty decisions
Both the governments had faulted from the beginning as either there should have been a joint judicial inquiry or a single inquiry like in the case of Langpih.
Four Khasi villagers were killed in Langpih on November 14, 2010 in a firing incident by Assam police following which Assam instituted the judicial inquiry commission headed by retired justice PC Phukan which was accepted by Meghalaya unlike Assam inquiry commission on Mukroh which had its sitting in Shillong on August 7 this year but nobody turned up from Meghalaya due to an illogical suggestion by the Advocate General that if Meghalaya officials attend, it may be seen that Meghalaya is accepting that Mukroh falls under Assam which, however, has no basis as Langpih is also a disputed territory but Meghalaya had cooperated with the probe in 2010.
Long wait for CBI probe
With almost one year into the incident, both the state governments are yet to write to the Centre regarding the need to have the CBI probe.
Sources said that by the time the Centre orders the CBI probe, it will be a forgotten matter like the adage justice delayed is justice denied while the relatives will also have to wait for the compensation.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma spoke about the need to approve the minutes of the joint meeting held on September 30 in Guwahati following which both the governments will move the Centre for the CBI probe.
