The Superintendent of Police Churachandpur district reportedly tendered his apology to the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Churachandpur over clarification regarding the arrest of a 19-year-old whose FIR was cancelled without producing before the court.
One 19-year-old Paominthang Haokip a resident of Old Gelmol, Churachandpur was arrested in connection with a Facebook "comments against CM Biren".
Subsequently, the police informed the duty magistrate, through the prosecution, for producing the arrested person and the remand prayer sought five days of police custody.
Interestingly, on May 29 the duty magistrate, Churachandpur waited for the accused to be produced before him, but the accused never arrived.
The duty magistrate learnt that the arrested person was freed by the police without following due process of law. But surprisingly, on May 30, there was a news story in the local newspaper that ‘SP Churachandpur clarified that no arrest was made and no FIR was registered.
Hence, the CJM, Churachandpur on June 1 stated that all chain of events and documents submitted to the court exposes a glaring irregularity in the functioning of the district police.
“Incidents such as the case doubt on institutions which are for protection of citizen rights,” the CJM court stated.
Therefore, the CJM, Churachandpur directed OC Ingocha to appear before the court along with necessary materials regarding the chain of events of the case on June 6.
Following the direction, OC Ingocha appeared before the court on June 1 and submitted that perhaps the FIR was registered against the accused, Paominthang Haokip, though the FIR showed his own signature appended to it. He also submitted that all the aforementioned events were done under the instructions of his superior officer.
“I wish to reiterate that such incidents cast a serious doubt on the institution which is meant for protecting the rights of citizens. The district police are guided in their functioning by following the procedural law and anything below and beyond shall be viewed as high handedness and callous,” stated the CJM, Churachandpur.
Although, the OC submission and clarification further threw doubt in the clarification of SP Churachandpur in the local newspaper, the CJM’s court further directed the SP Churachandpur to appear before the court on June 8 on the matter.
“It must be clarified that the court is not questioning the power of arrest by the concerned police, nor is this court questioning the arrest of the particular person as long as it follows the procedural mandate of the CrPC rather what this court is questioning... is the flip flopping of conflicting statements by the district police, forwarding a FIR copy to court along with remand prayer for five days and while the remand procedure were about to commence, the taking away of the accused person from the residence of the duty magistrate followed by a media clarification the next day stating no FIR was registered and that the accused person was never arrested brings to light the functioning of the district police,” stated the CJM court.
