Army Major named in FIR for killing 12-yr-old in fake Manipur encounter

NEW DELHI: The CBI registered two fresh cases in Manipur encounters on Tuesday, with an

Army Major

named in one of the FIRs for killing a 12-year-old boy, Azad Khan, in an encounter in March 4, 2009. This is the first of 29 FIRs registered by CBI so far, in which an Army officer has been named as an accused. Major Vijay Singh Balhara, then attached with Assam Rifles, along with seven other uniformed personnel has been named as accused in the killing of Khan.

Azad’s case was termed as a “fake encounter” by SC-appointed commission led by Justice (Retired) Justice Santosh Hegde. Azad, a student of class VII in Phoubakchao high school with no criminal antecedents was allegedly picked up from his home before being killed, the commission had stated.

An FIR was registered nearly two months before the alleged encounter under sections of attempt to murder, Arms Act and other stringent charges. “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 in the same school, was reading the 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 added.


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