Friday, January 31, 2025
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Two judicial inquiry reports yet to be made public

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By Our Reporter

 SHILLONG: Reports of two judicial inquiries, completed at the cost of over Rs 1.25 crore, are gathering dust in the respective departments of the State Government.

A judicial inquiry report related to the anomalies in the GHADC and another on the infamous Shillong jailbreak are yet to be made public by the State Government.

On December 29 last year, the one-man Judicial Inquiry Commission headed by Justice (retd) PG Agarwal had submitted the probe report to the Government on the alleged financial irregularities and illegal appointments in the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC).

The cost incurred for the probe was over Rs 25 lakh.

Though the report was submitted to the Chief Secretary three months ago, the Government resorted to the ‘delay tactics’ to avoid making the report public since Assembly elections were round the corner.

An official said that once the report is handed over to the Government, it becomes a public document and the Government should have released the report.

It was fear of repercussion during the Assembly election which led the Congress-led Government to decide against making the report public.

Another report which the Government refused to make public citing the election model code of conduct was the probe into the infamous Shillong jail break of May 31,2009.

It took more than three-and-half years and an expenditure of over Rs 1 crore for the Justice (retd) SP Rajkhowa Commission to complete the probe.

Billed as the costliest ever inquiry in Meghalaya, the jail break probe report was also the most time consuming.

It was on January 11 that the Judge (retd) SP Rajkhowa submitted the report to Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma. Four days later, Rajkhowa breathed his last in Guwahati.

However, the Political Affairs Department gave the excuse of the election model code of conduct for not making public the jail break probe report.

Moreover, the department also said that the report needs to be tabled in the Assembly first, citing the provisions of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952.

However, a former Government official who is familiar with the judicial inquiry reports said the moment the probe reports are handed over to the Government , they become public documents and the Government need not wait for an Assembly session to make them public.

After a recent report that the probe panel had ruled out fake encounter killing of jail break mastermind Full Moon Dhar, the Political Affairs department had claimed that the report was still under a sealed cover which means that it will take more time for the Government to release the report.

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