Centre promises to look into alleged fake encounter in Manipur

Police said, constable Singh shot a suspected member of PLA in Imphal, under orders

The Centre on Wednesday promised to look into the purported confession of a Manipur police commando that he had killed in cold blood an unarmed suspected insurgent in 2009 in an alleged fake encounter that had sparked widespread outrage in the northeast state.

"I will get the information and then I can comment...Then we will look into it," Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who is on a visit to Kerala, said in Thiruvananthapuram.

Manipur police head constable Thounaojam Herojit Singh had reportedly confessed that he shot 22-year-old Chungkham Sanjit Meitei, a suspected member of the insurgent group People's Liberation Army (PLA), in a busy market area in Imphal on July 23, 2009.

Herojit Singh has reportedly accepted that Meitei was not carrying arms and that he allegedly carried out the action on the orders of his superior.

According to Singh, he pumped bullets into the former PLA militant acting on orders from his senior, the then Additional Superintendent of Police in Imphal. He said that he shot at Meitei with a 9mm pistol on chest.

Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said the Centre has taken "cognisance" of the said reports on the purported confession.

"I was little disturbed to see this news and confession which has been reported. We have taken cognisance of this revelation and necessary steps will be taken," Rijiju said.

Congress leader R P N Singh questioned the silence of the police commando in the matter for all these years but said it needed to be investigated if the reported confession was true. Ibobi Singh of the Congress was the chief minister at the time of the alleged fake encounter.

Asked by a TV channel why he had not reported the matter at the time of the encounter, the commando said he had feared for his life.

Meitei's mother had later filed a police complaint accusing the police of staging a fake encounter involving his son and the case was subsequently transferred to CBI in 2010 for a thorough probe.

She today demanded justice from authorities failing which Singh be handed over to her.