A suspended Army officer facing CBI probe in an alleged disproportionate assets case approached Supreme Court on Thursday for shifting his trial outside Manipur as he claimed to have received death threats from insurgents in the North Eastern State.
The officer in question, lieutenant Colonel Hapreet Singh, through his lawyer, made an urgent plea for immediate listing of his petition before a Vacation Bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and Ashok Bhushan. The petition said that the officer’s actions had led to elimination of insurgent groups in Manipur and a false corruption case was instituted against him.
The Court, however, found no urgency to list the matter during Vacations.
Singh was posted at Manipur in the intelligence wing of Assam Rifles where he carried out a series of operations against insurgents following which he claimed over 100 ultras surrendered and several were killed. In connection with the case against him, he went to attend court proceedings at Imphal in April this year.
The petition stated that Robin luwang Cha, now the chief of militant outfit People’s liberation Army, a senior functionary of the insurgent group, was on Singh’s radar and intelligence inputs against him were supplied by Singh during his posting at Imphal.
The petitioner claimed that Robin was closely related to an Army officer who was posted in vigilance wing of Assam Rifles. This officer was accused of leaking out secret information about the conduct of operations resulting in failure of sensitive operations, the petition alleged.
Singh claimed that he faced threat from this Army officer too. In this background, Singh requested the Court to transfer his trial from Imphal to Chandigarh.