Legal notice served in connection with March 22 incident in Nagaland where 3 persons were killed

Our Correspondent
Kohima, April 12 (EMN): The government of Nagaland has been served with legal notice for non-enforcement of the status quo order dated June 25, 2019, in connection with the March 22 incident where three persons were killed at LamhaiNamdi village.

Advocate Chingmei Konyak of Joshua and Associates Advocates, Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench, has served the legal notice to Nagaland Chief Secretary, Home Commissioner, Commissioner, Director General of Police, deputy commissioners of Dimapur and Peren, Commissioner of Police, Dimapur and Superintendent of Police, Peren.

The legal notice, which the advocate stated was served under the instruction of the client — Kiyevi Village Council, has demanded the state government to implement the Status Quo Order dated 25 June 2019 in its true essence and to evict the violators of the order with immediate effect.

It demanded to “stop harassing the Kiyevi villagers for the state government’s own failure to enforce the rule of law” and “define the Dimapur District Court to have jurisdiction to try the offence (s), in as much as the Kiyevi village is under Dimapur District”, and also restrain the representatives of the people from inciting the people to commit further lawlessness.

The notice asked the state government to act upon its demands within one month and went on to warn that appropriate proceeding would be filed against the state government before the appropriate forum if it “refuses to act upon this legal notice and fails to uphold the rule of law for which it exists”.

“Without going into the actual issue of the land ownership dispute created by the Lamhai village, which will be decided by relying upon the judicial decisions and documents on record. The present legal notice is confined to the defeat of the rule of law on the failure of the State’s machineries inability to enforce its own order contributing to the most unfortunate incident of March 22 2021,” read the legal notice, a copy of which is available with this newspaper.

It alleged that “the state government went to sleep without enforcing its own (status quo) order. This clearly shows malice, malafide and ulterior motive of the state government. It clearly reflects the absence of the rule of law in Nagaland”.

‘The utter failure of the state government to enforce the law has resulted in the most unfortunate incident on March 22 2021 where three precious lives were lost. While the crime is a different subject matter, the State Government must take responsibility for its own contribution of lawlessness in the area,’ it added.

The notice also claimed that there is no defined police station for the disputed area despite the fact that Kiyevi village is under Dimapur district. “After the crime on 22 March, 2021, the people of Kiyevi village are put to face the unfair process of law, due to failure of the state government to enforce its own law. It is not wrong to state that the state government is a party to the present crime,” it stated.

“It is most unfortunate that the people’s representatives participated in the disputed area against the state government’s standing order of status quo. The people’s representatives should be restrained from inciting tribal and communal feelings lest the failure of the State Government lead to larger problems,” it added.

It may be recalled that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Nagaland police probing the March 22 incident had arrested four suspects – three from Kiyevi village and one from Diphuphar, Dimapur – earlier this month in connection with the case.