I, Longjam Shanti alias Boyai Singh, aged about 56 years, S/O (Late) Longjam Bidhu Singh of Keishamthong Longjam Leirak, P.S Imphal West, Imphal West District, would like to testify the happenings of the day my son (Late) Longjam Uttamkumar Singh was killed by the Manipur Police Commandos on 29th March 2008.
My son Uttamkumar completed Civil Engineering diploma course in the year 2000, from Industrial Institute of Technology, Takyelpat with outstanding first class position. He worked as sales executive in a computer mechanic shop at Thangal Bazar, Imphal. He left behind a daughter from his first marriage as his first wife died of blood cancer when the girl child was very small. He remarried again but before having any children the incident which led my son to dead happened and his second wife left for her maternal home. Now, my granddaughter Bidyarani is living with me and she is 14 years old, studying in Class VIII at John English School, Imphal.
On the fateful day, I returned home around 3.30-4 pm and when I reached my residential gate I saw a two wheeler (Honda Activa) parked across our house and two persons were lingering around in civilian clothes. I came inside thinking that they must have come to buy chicken from the neighboring chicken shops. After few minutes I heard the sound of my son’s two wheeler scooter (Bajaj NV) arriving home from his work. According to family members, the person who was lingering near our gate followed him, brings out a pistol and fired a round to my son from behind, my son was shouting “what is my fault” several times. He ran across our courtyard screaming while the persons chasing and shooting him several times. He ran between the houses but the assaulters finally hunted him down in a narrow space lying between my brother’s house and ours with his right hand clutching his helmet.
My brother did not know that it was my son as the head was covered with his jacket hood and his face was facing the ground. He told me that one of the persons in civil dress came close to the bullet riddled body and told him not to move and instantly fired several rounds, killed him at the spot. He further informed that another person came near the body and his cap fell on the blood of my son, while he was trying to keep a pistol on the right hand side of the dead body.
When I first heard the gunshots, I thought it was bursting of cracker; however I was confused since it was not a festive season that we used crackers to celebrate. In a confused state of mind I came out and one of the assaulters escorted me out from our house towards the gate. He shot several rounds of blank fire in the air and I was so afraid that I couldn’t utter a single word. When I reached the gate, just right after the shooting, many police personnel of different ranks reached my house and a rank officer summoned me to identify the dead body, I learned that the persons in the civil dress were the Police Commandos. As I went to identify the person they killed, I was in real confusion thinking about the reason why the police only asked me to identify the body. When I noticed that it was my son, I was dumbfounded and stunned and then I fainted. While identifying the body, I was really shocked as my son was chased and hunted down like an animal inside our house. I didn’t even know that my son was engaged with the sounds of the gun shots which I considered as crackers. I also learnt that the persons whom I saw at the gate were the police commandos.
Later it also came to light that the person who escorted me towards the gate was constable Naoba and the main culprit of the incident was Inspector James Thangal, both belongs to Imphal West district police commando.
We did not retrieve the body for several days. On the account of my son’s murder by the Commandos there were lots of commotions in most of the Imphal West greater area. Various forms of agitations such as public rallies, sit-in-protest, strikes etc. were demonstrated in denunciation of the extra judicial killing of my son. Many civil society organizations and people came from across the State came to us and shared the grief and also participated in the agitation that demand justice against the heinous act of the police commandos. We did not retrieve the body and urged authority concerned to give the reason why my son was killed mercilessly. I even met the honorable Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh and inquired the reason for murdering my son. He responded that there is a reason; however he was not able to come out with the genuine reason. My son was innocent and was living a simple life with a satisfied earning from his job. The police had murdered him, incriminating him to be an insurgent and alleging falsely that he was killed during an encounter. They prepared false FIR writing wrong information that my son was killed when he fired several gunshots while the police told him to stop. The post-mortem report said that eight bullets were found from his dead body. He was assassinated mercilessly.
Our family suffered grievously over the death of my innocent son. My wife and I suffered the most. I was bedridden for 12 days since the day that he was shot. I refused to eat anything for several days and I was dependent on some sort of medicines. I am an artist by profession; many of my students came and forced me to eat. I even came out to join one of the protests held at Keishampat Junction withholding the drip bottle in my hand but I fell unconscious before I could reach the gate. One of my students picked me up and insisted that I should join the agitation for the justice, instead of keeping myself weak and tired.
Even today, I cannot accept the truth that my son is dead and as result I suffered from short term memory loss, tension, anxiety and insomnia. Most of the time, I felt like crying when I look into the innocent face of my granddaughter. My wife and I are her real parents now. We make sure that she does not feel uncomfortable for having lost her parents. She calls me father and mother to my wife. Now all the responsibilities of my granddaughter depend on us. Every day she worships to her father’s photograph offering flowers and incense sticks.
Now, I cannot tolerate to see any Police commandos, I felt very angry remembering how one of them had murdered my innocent son and orphaned my granddaughter. I cannot even eat properly and felt so unsatisfied and discontent why they have to kill him at such a young age.
I am waiting for the justice, the case is pending in the trial Court before the session Judge and it is in cross-examination stage. The NHRC had also directed the Court for Magisterial inquiry. Many people from Human Rights based organization came to meet us enquiring about the incident. I am happy that so many people are concerned about our issue and it is heard all over the world how the police are killing innocent people in Manipur in the name counter insurgency movement. I am sure that the Court will favor on my behalf and punish the personnel involved in the killing. I do not want any compensation; I just want justice.
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