Army officer booked over fake encounter

New Delhi: An Army officer has been booked by the CBI in a case related to the alleged Manipur extra-judicial killings which are being probed by the Central probe agency on the orders of the Supreme Court. This is the first such case in 29 FIRs registered by the CBI

Maj. Vijay Singh Balh-ara, then attached with Assam Rifles, along with seven other uniformed personnel, has been nam-ed as accused in the case pertaining to the killing of 12-year-old boy Azad Khan. The case has been registered under relevant IPC sections. This was termed a case of fake encounter by a Supreme Court-appointed commission led by Justice Santosh Hegde (Retd).

According to the family, Azad was killed on March 4, 2009, the commission had noted. A student of Class 7 in Phoubakchao High School with no criminal antecedents, he was allegedly picked up from his home before being killed, it said. An FIR was registered nearly two months before the alleged encounter under sections of attempt to murder, arms act and other stringent charges.

Azad’s family had said that he and his friend Kiyam Ananda Singh, who was a neighbour and studied in the same school, was reading newspaper in the verandah of his home where his parents and relatives were present. At 11.50 am, about 30 security personnel came to the house and dragged Azad to a nearby field where he was severely beaten up, the commission said in its report.

Parents, relatives and friends of Azad were locked in a room by the security forces but they could see through the window that after being beaten up, he was shot by one of the commandos and a pistol was thrown near the body, it said.

The version of family members was supported by relatives, it said. The police had claimed that it got input of terrorists’ movement in Azad’s village to extort money from people.

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