Shillong, Aug 20: Addressing the concerns raised about the Meghalaya government’s decision to appoint Retd judge T Vaiphei, also the chairperson of Meghalaya Human Rights Commission (MHRC), to head the judicial inquiry into the killing of Cherishterfield Thangkhiew, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Friday said there is no law or rule that bars the chairperson of MHRC, who is a retired judge, to head the judicial inquiry.
Sangma explained that the Commission of Inquiry Act mandates the judicial inquiry to have more powers than a Human Rights Commission (HRC). “The HRC looks into aspects of Human Rights but a judicial inquiry has the powers to go into background of the case, the investigation and asking all concerned departments to give all necessary information which a HRC will not have. While we move forward in this we felt that a MHRC chairperson who is also a Retd judge would be able to give both perspective, and we would gain more by appointing the chairperson,” stated Sangma.
He said that T Vaiphei has sufficient knowledge of the region who will be able to do justice to this and there is no law or rule that bars him to be a chairperson of this judicial inquiry.
The government had decided to constitute a judicial inquiry into what had transpired during the wee hours of August 13. The Meghalaya police claims that it was a raid-turned-encounter and that former HNLC general secretary Cherishterfield Thangkhiew had tried to attack the police with a knife which led to a retaliatory shot. Thangkhiew had succumbed to his injury and was laid to rest on August 15 which witnessed thousands of people turning up to pay their tribute.
