IMPHAL, December 23: Porompat SDPO Thongom Ramgopal deposed before the Commission of Inquiry on the death of Sapam Robinhood today and submitted that all police actions were only meant for dispersal of the unruly mob on the said day and “did nothing excessive”.
The commission has been constituted to probe the death of the Sapam Robinhood Class XI student of Ananda Academy Higher Secondary School during a student rally on July 8 near Minuthong.
He said there was no stone pelting or shooting of sling shots and catapults by the police personnel on the said day as they had not brought any such thing.
During cross examination by the counsel of Robinhood’s family, the police officer said that there must be around 30-40 police personnel at the Minuthong area on the day.
He admitted that the police did not use loudspeakers (PA system) to give information or warning to the student protesters.
Further in his statement, he said there must have been a struggle of around one or two minutes between the police and the student protestors before the former resorted to tear gas firing.
He said he heard sounds of about 5/6 shots of tear gas shell.
The effective range of a tear gas shell would be within 50-100 meters.
He also admitted that he had never heard about the death of an individual as a result of injury sustained by tear gas shell and he does not know as to whether Robinhood succumbed to his injury due to use of tear gas shell or not.
He also admitted that he did not see any sort of deadly weapon possessed by the student protestors on that day; however he said he saw most of the students holding stones and said they had warned the student protestors not to carry stones.
During the cross examination by the prosecution counsel, he said no para military forces like CRPF, Assam Rifles were deployed on that day at Hatta Minuthong area.
He said tear gas shell/smoke bombs are non-lethal and he cannot say if tear gas shell/smoke bomb hit directly from a close range on a vital part of the human body like face, neck, head etc could be fatal.
SI Nahakpam Raju in his statement mentioned that on that day at the time when the students numbering about 400 arrived, he was near the Minuthong traffic island.
The other police personnel near the iron barricades shouted warnings to the students to return back and not to proceed further, he said in his statement.
He said the police also shouted that there was prohibition under Section 144 CrPC and the Manipur Legislative Assembly was in session however the students demanded to proceed with the rally further by crossing Minuthong and towards the Assembly Hall, Chingmeirong.
He said there was a struggle between the police personnel and the students and that the students even broke the iron barricades. At that moment he also stepped forward shouting that students should not do like that, he said.
Suddenly, the students pelted stones and one of the stones hit him on his right hand and he moved backwards, he said. His hand was swollen due to the hit but it was not a major injury, he said in his statement before the commission.
During cross examination by the counsel for Robinhood’s family, he denied the suggestion that Sapam Robinhood succumbed to his injury due to the injury caused by a tear gas shell.
During the cross examination by the counsel for Commission, he admitted that he came to know about the mass rally on July 6.