SHILLONG: The political department’s inability to submit the list of government witnesses has delayed the pronouncement of over Rs 31 crore ILP damage suit verdict.
The case is being handled by the Special Court.
During the ILP agitations sponsored by 14 pressure groups in 2013, the Government-constituted the Special Court to deal with two sets of cases, one criminal case under Meghalaya Maintenance of Public Order Act and another, damage suit over Rs 31 crore for the destruction of properties during the agitations.
After the Government withdrew 92 criminal cases filed against the protestors under Meghalaya Maintenance of Public Order Act, what is left now is the damage suit of over Rs 31 crore.
Following the agitations two years ago, the state government end of 2013 formed the Special Court and filed the damage suit of over Rs 31 crore to recover money from the protestors for the large scale damage to properties including arson cases.
Though there were a few hearings at varied intervals, the matter is still pending with the Special Court defeating the intention of the Government to fast track the case.
An official source on Saturday said that there were many government officers including the DCs , SPs and OCs of police stations who are government witnesses since they were the ones who filed cases against the sponsors of agitations demanding the implementation of ILP in 2013.
The source said that the political department had written to the DGP to provide the names of witnesses and he in turn wrote to the SPs and they have forwarded the matter to the OCs of police stations to provide the names of government witnesses.
The source pointed that red tape in giving names has delayed the early disposal of the case and added that without knowing who were the government witnesses, the government had once submitted the list of 92 cases filed against the pressure groups as per Meghalaya Maintenance of Public Ordinance Act to segregate the government witnesses, which, however, was not necessary.
