Khushi Thapa, Mumbai Uncensored, 12th July 2022:
The results of a special investigation team (SIT) have been made public, and a rights group has requested that the Centre authorize the prosecution of Army servicemen who were discovered to have been responsible for the massacre of civilians in Nagaland’s Mon area in 2021.
On December 4, 2021, soldiers from an elite Army unit ambushed a village near Oting and fatally shot 13 residents. On December 5, an angry mob protesting the Oting killings was shot and killed by Assam Rifles men in Mon, the district’s administrative centre.
According to the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR), the Nagaland government-established SIT finished its investigation into the massacre in March, turned in its charge sheet in the middle of April, and presented its final report to a local court in Mon in May. In its charge sheet, the SIT named 30 Army personnel.
“The SIT has been waiting for Department of Military Affairs approval to move forward with prosecution since April. More significantly, the Nagaland Chief Minister stated in early March that the SIT findings would only be made public once the Centre granted authorization to prosecute, according to a statement released on Friday by PUDR secretaries Deepika Tandon and Shahana Bhattacharya.
The Oting event had also been the subject of an independent investigation by the Army. However, it is not required to disclose its results. The PUDR asserted that the SIT had charged the Army on numerous grounds in its 300-page report and demanded that the Centre authorize the prosecution of the guilty Army soldiers.
According to the PUDR, the Centre’s approval is required before bringing legal action against Army troops. It referenced a Rajya Sabha report that stated that eight of the 30 requests for the prosecution that the Centre received from 1991 to 2015 were still pending.
