Assault case against Champion
SHILLONG: A lower court on Tuesday reserved for May 20 its judgement in the case of the GNLA chairman Champion Sangma assaulting a staff of Shillong district jail, which had many twists and turns.
Earlier on April 22, the High Court had asked the First Class Judicial Magistrate dealing with the case to complete the trial within one month.
Champion had allegedly attempted to assault a jail staff Kontro Khongwir inside the jail premises on October 16, 2014 and threatened the staff after he refused to fulfill the former’s various demands
The prosecution and the defence lawyers on Tuesday presented their final arguments on the matter.
During the hearing on Tuesday, the defence lawyer told the court that though the incident took place on October 16, 2014, the FIR in this regard was drafted only on October 23, and the same was received by the officer at Sadar police station on November 21. Hence the assault incident at Shillong jail has many twists and turns.
As per the FIR, the jail official Khongwir was assaulted with an iron road, but he deposed that Champion pushed him with an iron rod which, however, was never exhibited in the court.
Along with other sections, the section 20 of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) was added by the police when the case was registered, but the Investigating Officer told the court that he had never gone through the case under UAPA while carrying out investigation even as he hinted that Champion was wrongly implicated.
The jailor U. Kyndiah, told the court that as many as 31 jail staff approached him to lodge FIR against Champion.
However, in their submissions, the jail staff informed the court that they were made to sign in a blank paper by the jailor.
The argument of the defence lawyer is that the signature of the staff was obtained with illegal intention to malign Champion after he lodged a complaint against the jailor and other staff.
The complaint of Champion, however, was never forwarded to the police.
Meanwhile, the wife of Champion is annoyed over certain persons from Garo Hills who have been trying to malign her husband even as she threatened to sue them.
However, she did not disclose the names of those who were involved in the malicious campaign against her husband.
The former-DSP-turned-GNLA chairman was arrested from near the Indo-Bangla border at Umkrem, East Khasi Hills on July 30, 2012 after being reportedly deported from Bangladesh.