ILP arson cases
SHILLONG: The Special Court headed by First Class Judicial Magistrate R Rymbai dealing exclusively with the ILP-related cases, will hold its first hearing on Tuesday.
Last month, the Court had issued notices to the leaders of all the pressure groups, who have been demanding implementation of ILP, to appear before the court on Tuesday.
The special court was formed by the Government to recover the damages to property during the agitation based on the Meghalaya Maintenance of Public Order Act.
The task of the court is to try cases related to arson and destruction of both public and private properties during the agitation.
An official source said though CSWO president Agnes Kharshiing recently announced her decision not to resort to agitation, notice had been served on her as she was part of the pressure groups when the incidents of violence took place.
Moreover, another notice has also gone to CSWO (Irene) since this is the other faction of the CSWO.
The Political Affairs department had on October 15 filed a petition before the special court with an initial assessment of loss of over Rs 31 crore due to the agitation.
Another petition will be filed soon citing the loss of over Rs 21 crore due to the destruction of a BSNL warehouse at Mawlai Mawroh during the agitation.
The court, after the hearing, will issue notices of recovery of over Rs 50 crore from the leaders of the various pressure groups.
Meghalaya Maintenance of Public Order Act stipulates that the agitators are liable to compensate the Government, public and private citizens for damages incurred. As per the Act, the persons involved, if convicted, can be imprisoned for three to seven years.
During the October session of the Assembly, the Congress-led Government had amended the Meghalaya Maintenance of Public Order Act to entrust the task of assessing the damages to the deputy commissioners.
It was through the amendment that the Government also appointed the first class judicial magistrate to head the special court.
“If nobody turns up during the hearing scheduled for December 3, the court will resort to next course of action,” an official source said.
However, the source did not reveal the nature of action to be adopted by the Court.