By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, June 15: The family of slain HNLC leader Cheristerfield Thangkhiew suspects that the state government is not divulging the findings of the Justice T Vaiphei-headed one-man commission as it will expose the guilty police personnel.
Granary Starfield Thangkhiew, who is the younger brother of Cheristerfield, told The Shillong Times the government would have divulged the findings had the same been in its favour.
“We have a strong doubt that the one-man inquiry commission might have recommended action against those police officials who were responsible for the killing of my brother,” Granary said.
In the first week of June, Thangkhiew’s family members had written to Secretary of Home department, CVD Diengdoh, through their legal counsel, seeking a copy of the report of Justice Vaiphei commission. A copy of it was also submitted to Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma.
The government told Thangkhiew’s family the report can be shared after it is tabled in the upcoming session of the Assembly. But Granary argued if that is the case, why the government had divulged the findings of the Justice RN Mishra commission, which probed the alleged irregularities in the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited, to the media.
“Why is the government adopting different yardsticks,” he asked.
The Justice Vaiphei panel had submitted its report, prepared in six months after conducting 20 hearings, to Sangma last month. It had declined to reveal the findings saying the same is “confidential”.
“I questioned five witnesses, including the medical officer who performed the post-mortem and four police officers. I examined five witnesses from the victim’s family and two commission witnesses who are the investigation officers – one from the Khliehriat IED explosion case and the other from the Mawlai case where the incident occurred on August 13, 2021,” Justice Vaiphei had stated.
“…I left no stone unturned to prepare the finest possible report. Now, the ball is in the government’s court,” he had said.
