EEVFAM, HRA hail Court's order summoning AR personnel in alleged fake encounter case

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Nov 12: The Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families Association, Manipur (EEVFAM) and Human Rights Alert (HRA) have welcomed an order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Imphal East (CJM) issuing summon to 13 personnel of the 19th Assam Rifles (AR) accused of murdering Pheiroijam Keshorjit.
Pheiroijam Keshorjit was shot dead on the morning of June 21, 2005 at Seijang Sailent after he was allegedly arrested the previous evening from Sabungkhok Khunou.
Keshorjit’s case is one of 39 incidents investigated by the Special Investigation Team of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The case is among 1528 cases of alleged extrajudicial execution submitted to the Supreme Court of India by EEVFAM and HRA in 2012.
In a statement today, EEVFAM and HRA recalled that on completion of the investigation into the case, the CBI submitted a Final Report (FR) to the CJM in 2021 which clearly established that "the 13 AR personnel in pursuance of criminal conspiracy and common intention illegally detained and shot Keshorjit dead."
When the same Final Report revealed that the Central Government had denied prosecution sanction in respect of the 13 accused under Section 6 of AFSPA, EEVFAM then filed a protest petition praying the Chief Judicial Magistrate to take cognizance against the accused persons.
Hearing the petition on October 30, the CJM took cognizance against the 13 accused personnel of the AR ruling that “the requirement of taking prosecution sanction under Section 6 of the AFSPA does not arise, and certainly not an impediment in initiating criminal proceedings against the accused”.
The CJM then issued an order summoning the 13 accused personnel to appear before the Court on November 25.
"This order is significant in the light of the fact that denial of prosecution sanction is blocking all the prosecution of the armed forces personnel against whom prosecutable evidence of committing serious human rights violations have been found," said EEVFAM and HRA.
The rights bodies said, "Drawing from a Supreme Court judgment on Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights v/s Union of India, the order stated that “mere declaration of disturbed area does not give a carte blanche to the armed  forces operating in the disturbed area”."
The order also read, “... by any stretch of imagination, official duty cannot be protracted to include causing illegal confinement and murder of a person (as investigation of the CBI have revealed).”
It may be noted that in July this year, the UN Human Rights Committee had recommended the Government of India (GoI) to abolish the requirement of mandatory prior authorization of the Government for the prosecution of members of the security and armed forces.
The UNHRC made the recommendation while it was examining the 4th periodic review of India under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).