Likely to submit final report to the govt on March 11
Morung Express News
Dimapur | March 4
Following almost a year-long inquiry, the Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) instituted by the Nagaland government to inquire into the March 5, 2015 lynching incident is in the final stages of drawing to a close. The JIC, headed by retired judge of the Gauhati High Court, BD Agarwal with retired District & Sessions judge, Veprasa Nyekha as member, is slated to submit its report by the second week of March.
The JIC was constituted to ascertain the causes and circumstances leading to the incident of vandalism and forcible entry into the Central Jail, Dimapur on March 5, 2015 by a mob and killing of an under-trial prisoner and also the death of another person allegedly in police firing in the violence that ensued.
It was preceded by a short-lived one-man Judicial Inquiry headed by Nyekha, which was instituted on March 6. It did not take off well as anticipated, largely for a lack of clerical staff to assist in documentation of the inquiry.
Assistants assigned to the task either did not report to duty or reported long after the government notification informing of the assignment, while replacements also failed to turn up.
It was subsequently replaced by the JIC headed by Agarwal. With poor public response to the JIC initially, it was extended at least twice by the government.
The JIC also had to re-issue notice inviting written statements from individuals, NGOs and family members of the victims after the first notice issued on May 18 failed to generate satisfactory response. It eventually received 47 written statements.
As of now, the JIC has drafted its report pending finalisation. JIC member, Nyekha told The Morung Express that the draft of the final report is complete. Nyekha said, “The JIC will have a seating on some issues (regarding omissions/additions) for finalising the report” after which it will be submitted to the government. According to him, the final report would be submitted to the Chief Minister on March 11. He declined to give any further details.
As regards the police investigation, it was taken over by the CBI. It could not be ascertained how long the investigation is likely to last. According to an official source, the CBI took over sometime in November-December 2015 from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Nagaland Police following directives from the Gauhati High Court.
The SIT had arrested as many as 60 suspects during its investigation while no charge-sheet could be filed in court. All the arrested eventually obtained bail.
