A Manipur court has acquitted all nine police personnel accused in an alleged fake encounter in 2009 due to lack of evidence.
The incident on BT Road in the State’s capital Imphal had claimed the lives of a pregnant woman, Rabina Devi, and an alleged former extremist, Ch Sanjit Meitei. Five others were injured.
The police had alleged Sanjit fired at its commandos while trying to escape a routine frisking operation on the busy street. When photographs of the incident appeared in a magazine, his mother Ch Taratombi lodged a First Information Report alleging that the police killed Sanjit in a fake encounter.
In an order issued on July 26, the session judge of Imphal East district W. Tonen Singh said the prosecution failed to prove that the photographs in the magazine were genuine “by not producing the required Certificate provided under Section 65B(4) of the Indian Evidence Act which is mandatory.”
The court said these were photostat copies of photographs and as such, not admissible under the law unless proved by producing primary evidence.
“Whatever found in the depositions against all the accused persons cannot be taken as gospel truth in evidence,” the court said, adding the prosecution also admitted that the accused persons were doing their duties as police officers, head constables, constable and rifleman.
‘No convincing evidence’
“…there is no other convincing oral or documentary evidence in order to show all the accused persons acted in excess while discharging their official duties on the fateful day…” the court said.
“…Due to want of prosecution sanction under Section 197 Cr.PC. and due to lack of Certificate required under Section 65B (4) of the Indian Evidence Act, all the accused persons are hereby acquitted of the present case. Their bail bonds are hereby discharged from today,” the court’s order read.
The Manipur government had transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2010 after the incident triggered widespread protests. The agency submitted a charge in 2015 against the nine police personnel.
It was stated in the chargesheet that the accused persons accosted Sanjit with the common intention to cause his death, led him to the store room of a pharmacy and shot him dead. A policemen was named as the one who shot Sanjit.
