Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 1 Dec: The court of the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) in Lower Dibang Valley HQ Roing on 17 November dismissed all charges against seven accused in a 15 years long pending case.
The complainant in the case was the then town magistrate Mipe Tao, while the accused were Liyu Menjo, Tolba Meto, Tenzing Linggi, Kala Linggi, Aalo Meme, Kolbo Linggi, and Asati Linggi.
As per the FIR, “On 5 October, 2011, at around 9:30 pm, during Durga Puja, when the complainant had asked some boys who were playing dice to stop the game and not drink liquor, the boys started creating nuisance.
“Suddenly, about 60 to 70 boys armed with daos (machete), stones, glass bottles etc, attacked him and the police personnel on duty.
“They received injuries, and in order to disperse the mob, the complainant had to order the police to fire in self-defence.”
The FIR was registered on 5 October, 2011.
Records of the case also revealed that 12 police personnel and the complainant received injuries, while some of the accused – Nannong Langkam, Asati Linggi, Tenjing Linggi, Rajen Umpey and Laja Pulu – received bullet injuries.
The court of the CJM in its order stated that “there is no denial of the fact that the incident as mentioned in the FIR did not take place. However, only the complainant himself and one Mohammad Jamil Ali have taken the name of some of the accused persons.
“Interestingly, in the first statement given to the police, the complainant has clearly stated that he did not identify any person who was involved. In his subsequent statement, he has taken the names of four accused persons. This casts a doubt on the credibility of the statement of the complainant.
“Also, no other witness or victim has corroborated the statement of the complainant by identifying the accused persons. The statement of Mohammad Jamil Ali is with respect to the accused Kolbo Linggi, Talbo Linggi, Tenjing Linggi and Liyu Menjo.
“He has stated that a policeman, after asking the stall owner to stop serving alcohol and close down the stall, hit the served beer bottle on the table, which hurt the customer. It appears that, on spontaneous reaction, Kolbo Linggi retaliated.
“This is an isolated incident which, according to Mohammad Jamil Ali, is not connected to the chaos on the other side at lower ground of stall area. There is nothing in the record to show how the accused persons in this case were picked up from among 60-70 persons.
“No TIP was conducted. It appears that the police randomly picked up some of the accused persons who had received bullet injuries during the incident,” the CJM’s order read.
“From the above, it can safely be concluded that there absolutely is no material against any of the accused persons. Though proclamation has already been issued against accused Nannong Langkam, it will be a futile exercise to keep the matter pending with respect to him.
“In view of the above, Liyu Menjo, Tolba Meto, Tenzing Linggi, Kala Linggi, Aalo Meme, Kolbo Linggi and Asati Linggi are discharged from the charge under Section 147/148/186/323/353/332/34 IPC. The bail bond shall remain in force for six months from today (17 November),” the order read.
