A judicial inquiry functions according to the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952 where the state orders an enquiry into matters of public importance and in recent years, to matters related especially to the violation of human rights. Meghalaya has seen several inquiry committees and judicial commissions but none have resulted in the punishment of the guilty. One judicial inquiry that the people of Meghalaya will remember is related to the May 2009 Shillong jailbreak case where the notorious criminal Fullmoon Dhar along with six others, including two undertrials escaped from the Shillong jail. Fullmoon Dhar was gunned down the next day in West Jaintia Hills while the six other prisoners were re-arrested. A one-man Judicial Inquiry by Retired Judge of Guwahati High Court, SP Rajkhowa was constituted to enquire into the entire gamut of that incident. Justice Rajkhowa submitted a 79-page report into the findings only in 2013 and was tabled in the Assembly nine months later.
The terms of reference of the inquiry which should have been primarily on the alleged encounter killing of Fullmoon Dhar ended up acquitting the then SP, West Jaintia Hills Mukesh Singh who pulled the trigger on Fullmoon. The report focused on the reason for the jailbreak and blamed jail officials, saying they connived with undertrials and abetted the jailbreak. The probe also failed to establish a politician-criminal nexus which was believed to have led to the jailbreak. Judicial enquiries nearly always end up becoming post facto cover ups. Justice Rajkhowa said in the report that there was no cogent evidence to give definite findings about the criminal politician nexus. Considering that it took three years for the report to appear and a considerable amount of money paid by the Government to a senior Supreme Court lawyer to defend it, the whole exercise was a futile one. At the time, NGOs had alleged that the report was doctored before being placed in the Assembly. The report was replete with grammatical and other errors.
Judicial enquiries are meant to suspend public outcry by promising that the process would be free and fair. The final Report is submitted to the Government which has set up the Commission. The Government in turn presents it to the state legislature within six months. If the Commission finds any government official or police personnel guilty of misconduct and transgression in upholding the law, there are no enabling provisions to compel the Government to act on the steps that the Commission proposes. Keeping this in mind, will the judicial enquiry on the alleged encounter killing of Cheristerfield Thangkhiew lead to anything concrete and establish the guilt of the officers on duty who claim to have pulled the trigger on Thangkhiew because he tried to attack them? And how long will it take before the report is submitted? By then the 2023 elections would have been over.
