Womenfolk from the Yimchungrü community protesting the action of the police in Dimapur, March 2. (MExPix)
Dimapur, March 2 (MExN): Scores of people from the Yimchungrü community today publicly protested against the use of “third degree and torture at highest level” on the six persons who were arrested as suspects in the Zangrü murder case.
The protestors, who rallied under the banner of Yimchungrü Tribal Council and Western Yimchungrü Hoho, marched from City Tower Junction to DC’s Office where they submitted a memorandum to the district’s head of administration demanding immediate release of the six ‘innocent villagers detained in various police stations of Dimapur.’
The memorandum signed by the President of Yimchungrü Tribal Council and Western Yimchungrü Hoho also demanded the suspension and arrest of OC/IO Kiphire and SDPO Kiphire for ‘gross Human Right Violations such as custodial torture, inciting tribalism and sectarianism on the detainees’.
The public bodies also brought to the notice of DC Dimapur, KN Ngullie that one of the accused, Tia Yimchungrü, has become ‘unconscious and mentally imbalanced’ and that another detainee, Khu Yimchungrü, could not even support/stand himself. The public bodies asserted that the latter ‘is in a state of permanent physical damage and possible serious consequences’. The protestors also demanded that the Police officers in question be handed over to them.
While clarifying that the six arrested were innocent, the Yimchungrü Tribal Council and Western Yimchungrü Hoho repeated the warning that “should anything happen to any of detainees such as causing death or aftermath physical handicap, Mr.Yanger and Mr. Y.K. Puchury, the SDPO and OC/IO Kiphire, who are personally taking interest in torturing the innocent detainees beyond the powers vested on them in the guise of their official designation, shall be solely responsible for any consequences and shall be answerable to entire Yimchungrü community not as police personnel but as individual, for their excessiveness and high handedness.”
Replying to the accusation of the public bodies that the accused were subjected to “inhuman torture and manhandling during interrogation by applying 3rd degree” after bringing the accused to Dimapur Police stations on the pretext of security measures, the DC said the accused were brought to Dimapur on the directive of higher-ups in Kohima. DC Ngullie also expressed ignorance at the torture and manhandling of the 6 accused, but, he assured the protestors that investigation will be initiated into it.
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