By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The magisterial inquiry into alleged irregularities in the Shillong district jail will get delayed further as the Director General (Prison) Kulbir Krishan has sought some more time to submit his written statement to the probe panel.
Kulbir Krishan on Wednesday deposed before magisterial inquiry panel headed by Additional District Magistrate DM Wahlang.
According to sources, Wahlang grilled Krishan for nearly two hours.
“The inquiry committee has completed the recording of the statement of all the witnesses. The whole process got delayed since the DG (Prison) was not available to depose before it,” sources said.
According to sources, the panel would be able to complete the probe once it receives Krishan’s statement.
It may be mentioned on October 3, the Government notified the inquiry headed by Wahlang to probe several allegations concerning the Shillong jail.
Only a week’s timeframe was given to the magistrate to complete the probe. However, according to official sources, the magistrate began the inquiry only on Saturday as he was not well.
The terms of reference of the probe includes the need to inquire into the complaints of alleged financial irregularities in the Shillong jail and to assess the extent of such irregularities and fix responsibility, if any, for the same.
The probe panel was supposed to identify the reasons leading to the protest by a section of the jail staff on September 29 besides identifying the persons responsible for it. The Additional District Magistrate will further examine the possible role of outsiders in instigating the protest.
The magisterial inquiry was supposed to look into the alleged nexus between some jail staff and the GNLA chief Champion Sangma, who is lodged at the high security cell, to ascertain whether the security of the jail has been compromised with due to such nexus. The inquiry would also suggest remedial measures to prevent such incidents in future. There were also reports that that Campion’s lawyer Sujit Dey allegedly tried to bribe the jail staff which will also be probed by the magistrate.
Earlier, the agitating jail staff of Shillong jail had demanded the DG (prisons) Kulbir Krishan to step down protesting against his style of functioning and gave a deadline of 10 days for the same to be implemented.
However, due to the intervention of the East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner Sanjay Goyal, the employees called off the strike recently.