By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: In an irony of sorts, retired Meghalaya police chief Anil Pradhan whose name had figured after the infamous Shillong jail break of May 31,2009, was made the Special Rapporteur of National Human Rights Commission.
As per the NHRC website, Pradhan has been appointed as Special Rapporteur, North East Zone, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura.
Pradhan had to relinquish the post of DGP in August 2009 after an administrative probe into the Shillong carried out by the then Principal Secretary Home, Barkose Warjiri found that the police chief had influenced his sub-ordinate police officials to release Congress politician Thomas Nongtdu who had allegedly funded the jail break. Later, the Government instituted the judicial probe into the jail break.
Sources questioned the validity of NHRC appointing Pradhan at a time when the judicial probe into the Shillong jail break is yet to be made public.
The five terms of reference of the judicial inquiry included the reason behind the May 31 Shillong jail break incident, the circumstances which led to the death of the gang leader of Shillong jail break Full Moon Dhar, circumstances which led to the arrest and the subsequent release of the Congress politician Nongdtu, an accused in the Shillong jail break, the extent of politician-criminal nexus on the jail break episode and any other related matters on the jail break issue.