Shillong, Sept 9: The opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) has asked the government to institute a NIA/CBI probe into the alleged criminal conspiracy behind the killing of the former HNLC leader Cherishtarfield Thangkhiew.
Addressing a press conference on Friday evening following the tabling of the judicial inquiry report of justice T Vaiphei, the Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma said nobody can doubt the competency of Meghalaya police and hence there are doubts about criminal conspiracy behind the killing of Thangkhiew.
Mukul wanted the people of the state to raise the question whether there was a criminal conspiracy resulting in the death of Thangkhiew.
“There has to be an independent inquiry to find the answer,” he said and added that there are multiple agencies like the NIA and the CBI to carry forward the task.
“All laws of the land should be directed to rule out whether or not there was a criminal conspiracy. The government has to do that to win back the confidence of the people,” Mukul said.
According to Mukul, the government has been acting as an accused . “If they are after the accused then why would they say no to this demand”, he said.
Killing a potential man who could give information is counterproductive, Mukul said and added that such information is crucial for the security of the state.
“If they wanted to arrest him, they would have enriched themselves with information crucial to investigations. In the matter of pursuing any instance of crime, the inputs are of paramount importance. The sources of inputs, evidences are destroyed.”
“However, in this case, justice has been denied. Consequently, this creates a situation where there is a lack of trust in the government and the authority,” he said.
“Please remember that the Meghalaya police have stood the test of time. They have faced bigger challenges in restoring peace over the mushrooming militant organisations in the state. There have been innumerable raids over the years. We have gone through situations where the challenges were formidable with banned militant outfits. There have been multiple raids in urban and rural areas.
Once a piece of information is received from the intelligence inputs, the whole operation is done in such a way that there is minimal collateral damage. Minimal loss of families in the neighbourhood and of police personnel is to be ensured,” he said.
“The usual action is that they wait for dawn so that the visibility permits minimal damage. This SoP, it is followed everywhere across the state. So, they should have waited one or two hours more. Why was the SoP not followed all across the state?” he asked.
He said the police personnel were highly trained. “We take pride in the efficiency of the police organisation. I had no reason to believe it was because of incompetence. The police have been trained and have gone through similar kinds of experiences in the past thus, I am putting the question before the government and the government has to answer to the people as what led to the unfortunate death.
“It is the trust of people in the system which sustains our democracy. The government needs to instill confidence in me, you and the people. If there was a predetermined ill motive, the question persists whether it was a criminal conspiracy?”
Stating that there are certain cases where some portions have been erased in the report tabled in the Assembly, Mukul said since this is pertaining to an incident involving alleged killing, certain names are not revealed, though it would reflect on the confidence of the government.
