Leader of the opposition Dr Mukul Sangma has called for a full investigation into the death of the the former militant Cherishterfield Thangkhiew to rule out the possibility that he was a victim of a criminal conspiracy.
The Trinamool Congress leader was reacting to the report by the Justice Vaiphei commission, which was released today.
Defending the police service, Dr Sangma instead attacked the state government, insinuating that the police were under orders that ran contrary to standard operating procedures.
“The Meghalaya police has 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 and I have no reason to believe it was because of incompetence on the part of the police,” Dr Sangma said at a press conference here today. “Once a piece of information is received from intelligence agencies, the whole operation is done in such a way that there is minimal collateral damage, minimal loss of families in the neighbourhood and that of police personnel.”
He questioned why the police undertook the raid on Thangkhiew’s house in Mawlai Kynton Massar while it was still dark and did not wait one or two hours for dawn “so that the visibility permits minimal damage”.
Despite the commission of inquiry, justice has still been denied, Dr Sangma said, and this “creates a situation where there is a lack of trust in the government.” He added that the public mood has not been helped by the report taking so long to be made public and that several names within it have been redacted.
Thangkhiew’s home was raided on August 13, 2021. Police suspected that he had returned to militant activities (Thangkhiew was a former leader of the outlawed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council and had surrendered to the authorities several years ago) and was involved in a string of recent improvised explosive device (IED) blasts in East Jaintia Hills.
There was also another attack on Laitumkhrah market three days before Thangkhiew’s death.
“The report is indicative of how there is a culpable and thoughtless use of force,” the TMC leader said. “All laws of the land should be looked into to rule out this case as a criminal conspiracy. The government has to do that to win back the confidence of the state and its people. It is the trust of the 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 as to whether it was a criminal conspiracy.”
The police had claimed that Thangkhiew had attacked them with a knife, which led to their use of deadly force against him.
“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 have been destroyed. Killing a man who could potentially give you information is counterproductive,” Dr Sangma said, adding a call for an independent investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation or National Investigation Agency.
