Mukul asks CM to ‘shut up’ and refrain from defending police action

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaAugust 19, 2021

Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma on Thursday asked the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma to “shut up” and allow the independent inquiry to probe into the alleged fake encounter against the former Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) leader Cheristerfield Thangkhiew in his residence at Mawlai Kynton Massar on August 13. 

“At this juncture, I would expect the Chief Minister to shut up as far as this is concerned since we are asking for an independent inquiry,” Mukul told reporters while slamming the Chief Minister for giving statements which according to him can have a bearing on the course of investigation. 

He also alleged, “He (CM) has already started trying to defend the action of the police. If it is an independent inquiry what is expected from the Chief Minister is that he should say that since the government wants to have an independent inquiry let the outcome of the inquiry ultimately tells us the details of the whole circumstances that led to the incident.”

Mukul further stated that the Chief Minister was desperately trying to say (in his statements) that whatever the police has done was correct which means that he has jumped to a conclusion already. 

He asked if the CM was monitoring the whole incident? Was he part of the whole monitoring team from the top? “All those things are important. If this be the case then the terms of reference should include all those things as to who is monitoring this whole incident and whether there was an order or whether it was different circumstances that led to the unfortunate incident – all these things are important that is why the terms of reference is important,” he added. 

Asked, the Leader of Opposition said there will always be different schools of thought. “MHRC is already mandated by law even if the government doesn’t issue a notification they will take cognizance of this incident and they will have an inquiry suo motu that is how MHRC works. It is simple. MHRC will do its job as that is the mandate of the MHRC. You may not like it, you may not want it but then they will have their own job done,” he said. 

“Now what we are asking is an independent inquiry with appropriate terms of reference. MHRC will have their own terms of reference. They are guided by law, they are guided by those parameters which are considered as appropriately integrated as terms of references for themselves. They don’t have to be told by the government what are the terms of reference that are required to be incorporated when they go as per mandate of the law, as per mandate of the rules. Therefore, any independent inquiry whenever it constitutes the terms of references is very important as we have to the terms of references,” he added. 

He also alleged that the terms of references related to the probe into the corruption in the power department have been designed to dilute everything so that nothing will come out. 

“I have seen the terms of references in respect of the inquiry order pertaining to the alleged irregularities and alleged corruption in power sector, power department and in MeECL. You look at the terms of reference, the terms of references are designed in such a way that it will dilute everything and nothing will come out, it is a predetermined tampering on the whole expected progress of the inquiry. So that will reflect their intent how honest they are,” he stated.