Army officer booked by CBI in Manipur extra-judicial killing

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 agency on the orders of the Supreme Court. This is the first such case in 29 FIRs registered by the CBI.

Major Vijay Singh Balhara, then attached with Assam Rifles, along with seven other uniformed personnel has been named as accused in the case pertaining to the killing of 12-year-old boy Azad Khan.

The case has been registered under IPC sections related to murder.

This was termed a case of fake encounter by a Supreme Court- appointed commission led by retired apex court judge Santosh Hegde.

According to the family, Azad was killed on March 4, 2009, the commission had noted.

A student of class VII in Phoubakchao High School with no criminal antecedents 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, reports PTI.

"According to the security forces' evidence, the deceased was suspected to be a member of the Peoples United Liberation Front (PULF)," it said, adding that PULF was not a banned organisation, according to Manipur government.

Azad's family had said that he and his friend Kiyam Ananda Singh, who was a neighbour and studied 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 amid protests from parents, 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.