The plea by family members of former HNLC general secretary Cheristerfield Thangkhiew for a CBI inquiry into his death in police encounter will be heard by the Meghalaya High Court tomorrow.
The writ petition filed by Thangkhiew’s younger brother, Granary Starfield Thangkhiew will be taken up by a single bench of Justice Hamarsan Singh Thangkhiew.
Thangkhiew is represented by senior lawyer Themis Diengdoh.
During tomorrow’s hearing, the State government is likely to file its affidavit on the case to counter the points raised in the writ petition filed by Thangkhiew.
During the first hearing held on July 13, State government lawyer S A Laloo sought time to file her affidavit on the writ petition “in view of the sensitivity of the matter”. The High Court granted her three weeks’ time to file the affidavit.
It may be mentioned that Granary Starfield Thangkhiew had told media persons on June 15 that he filed the writ petition to seek an enquiry by the CBI on the death of his brother as he was not satisfied with the action taken by the State government on the recommendations of the one-man enquiry commission of Justice (retd) T Vaiphei on the matter.
Thangkhiew also said the petition was filed as he was kept in the dark on the action taken by police on the FIR lodged by him with the Mawlai police station on August 18, 2021.
The Vaiphei enquiry commission in its report submitted on May 19, 2022 has revealed that the death of Christerfield Thangkhiew at his residence at Mawlai on August 13, 2021 was caused by a botched operation.
“In my considered view, the operation was well-planned, but executed poorly, recklessly, hastily and without proper application of mind,” Vaiphei stated in the report.
The report also said that the Tactical Team-I in carrying out the operation to arrest the deceased at his residence on August 13, 2021 at about 3 am “was culpable of thoughtless and excessive use of force, which resulted in the death of the deceased, which turned out to be avoidable”.
“If the primary objective of carrying out the operation was to capture the deceased alive, the manner in which the raid was conducted unnecessarily gives rise to the impression that that was not so. This is most unfortunate,” the report stated.
