SHILLONG: The missing case of the impersonation victim, Rusith Sangma, who was earlier handed over to his brother, has caught the attention of the High Court of Meghalaya after a writ petition was taken up on Thursday.
The petition was filed by advocate S.P Mahanta.
Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari in his order on Thursday said as far as the issues sought to be raised, the petition appears to be essentially of the nature of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) as the petitioner cannot be said to be having direct personal interest in the matter.
“Therefore, it appears appropriate that this matter be registered as a PIL and be placed before the concerned Bench. Office to take appropriate steps and list this matter appropriately after one week,” the order said.
It was some time in 1994 that the non-criminal lunatic Rusith was replaced by the jail staff with Deepcharan Kaipeng, an accused in a murder case, who either died in custody or escaped from Shillong jail.
After the mix-up was detected and it was proved that Rusith was not Deepcharan, the lower court in 2001 had asked the police to find out Deepcharan.
The court also handed over Rusith to his brother Thomas Sangma after he was identified as hailing from Gulpani in South Garo Hills.
During the last hearing on the matter in 2005, the High Court had ordered adequate compensation to Rusith.
However, in November last year, Rusith’s brother and sister claimed that he went missing sometime in 2006 further deepening the mystery.
