SHILLONG, Sep 23: Meghalaya Police have submitted a detailed report on the alleged ‘vehicle scam’ to the Home department.
Disclosing this on Friday, Director General of Police (DGP) LR Bishnoi told reporters the department has asked the police to submit a list of documents, witnesses etc.
“After that, the government will decide the departmental procedure,” the DGP said.
He said Assistant Inspector General of Police GK Iangrai, who was named in the report, has not been suspended.
The charges in the preliminary inquiry, leaked in the media, are wide-ranging and the evidence is overwhelming. The inquiry report exposed unofficial procurement and non-registration of vehicles, discrepancies in documents, questionable allotment, and purchase of cheaper models against the sanction of expensive variants.
The inquiry team consisted of IGP (Law and Order) MK Singh, Deputy Inspector General of Police (ER) DNR Marak, Commandant of MLP 1st Battalion CA Lyngwa, SP (Anti-Infiltration) JG Momin, and officer in-charge of Central Workshop B Khongwir.
Meanwhile, asked if any action is being taken against the Tactical Team 1 of the police, which had led the operation against former HNLC leader Cheristerfield Thangkhiew, the DGP said the government will seek an explanation from the officers and the personnel of the team.
On the recent jailbreak in Jowai, he said a team of officers inspected the jail and found that most of the CCTV cameras were not functional. He said the police have strengthened the deployment of personnel in the jail.
Bishnoi also said the IG (Prisons) has been directed to inspect all jails in the state and submit a report to the government. He said the police have registered a case suo moto against unknown people in connection with the lynching of the four jail inmates.
‘Training for new police recruits by December’
The DGP said the police department hopes to train its new recruits by December this year.
He said the recruitment process was held up due to the observations of the High Court of Meghalaya on the non-submission of the roster system. “We have submitted the roster system for the (post of) constable, unarmed and armed branch. Our report has gone to the Home Department for scrutiny after which the Personnel Department will issue the notification,” he said on Friday.
According to the DGP, the police will start calling the candidates for interviews as soon as the notification is issued, hoping it would be done by December.
The Meghalaya Police also intend to use 80 bikes for patrolling the vulnerable lanes and by-lanes of the state capital, he said when asked about the Safe and Secure Shillong project in view of the non-functional CCTV cameras in the city. A proposal has been submitted to the state government, he added.
The DGP admitted that the police are not directly monitoring the CCTV cameras but would discuss with the experts and find out which cameras are non-functional.
An elderly person was recently killed by a speeding motorcycle in Shillong but the rider has not been arrested allegedly for lack of video evidence.
Bishnoi said there are about 150 points in Shillong that need patrolling.
80 pc failure of cases under NDPS Act
The DGP on Friday said that there are 80 per cent failure of cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in the state due to non-compliance of procedure or lapses.
“80 percent cases are failing in the court due to non-compliance of the laid down procedure under the NDPS Act small procedures lapse sometimes by the IO (Investigating Officer),” said Bishnoi.
According to him, to overcome these problems, the IOs are called with their case dairies to be supervised by senior officers to get rid of procedural lapses.
“We are training all our IOs, senior officers and we are concentrating on capacity building so that they can understand the procedure in details and there should not be any lapse from their side and water-tight case can be charge-sheeted in the court,” he added.
In the last four months, the police have recovered drugs worth Rs 18.33 crore in the illegal market, over Rs 24 lakh recovered from traffickers, and 134 accused have been arrested.
However, out of the 134 arrested, not a single one has been charge-sheeted yet, the DGP said.
“These are new cases and registered from June onwards and in many cases commercial quantities have been recovered. We have 180 days’ time for completing interrogation and so far not a single case is charge sheeted as most of the IOs are waiting for the report to be received from the FSL,” he said.
Explaining further he said, “The primary test shows confirmation to judge the level of purity. We have to wait for FSL report and if received within 180 days, we can file charge sheet and the process is more or less completed”.
Out of the 134 arrested, 14 are below 18 years of age, 125 are male, and nine are female, while 123 belong to Meghalaya and 11 to Assam, Manipur and Arunachal, which, according to Bishnoi, indicate that drug traffickers are working across the interstate borders.
He said that five are habitual offenders and a strong NDPS case is in the process.
Stating that in the last four months, eight to ten drug traffickers have been convicted and the punishment range from 2 to 10 years of jail, he said the conviction rate is improving slowly but the poor conviction rate still remains a cause of concern.
Giving out details of the affected districts, he said most of the drug trafficking takes place in eight districts — East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, South West Khasi Hills, East and West Jaintia Hills, Ri-Bhoi Werst Garo Hills and South Garo Hills.
Out of 42 cases, 50 per cent are registered in EKH and the highest registration is in Tura and third is East Jaintia Hills followed by Ri-Bhoi and West Jaintia Hills.
He also informed that no cases under NDPS have been registered in East West Khasi Hills – Mairang, East Garo Hills, North Garo Hills and South West Garo Hills.
Informing that there are 76 police stations in Meghalaya out of which 18 have shown registration of NDPS cases, he said they will concentrate on these police stations comparatively more than others to break the drug chain.
The DGP also informed that in the last four months, a massive drive against bike lifters was launched and 141 stolen bikes were recovered, 61 arrested and 19 cases registered.