Nagaland moves SC to prosecute 30 soldiers for 'killing' 13 civilians

Nagaland said the Army ambush team had opened fire on a Bolero pickup carrying coal miners without challenging or asking them to identify themselves.

The Supreme Court recently admitted a writ petition by Nagaland government challenging the Centre’s order denying sanction for prosecution of 30 Armymen who were named in the FIR lodged by state police for killing 13 civilians.

It was alleged that the civilians were gunned down in a botched-up operation to ambush militants in Mon district on December 4, 2021.
The petition has been filed under Article 32 invoking violation of the fundamental rights of citizens.

State advocate general K N Balgopal said though state police have clinching evidence against the soldiers, including a Major, the Centre has refused to accord sanction for their prosecution. The bench issued notices to the Centre and the ministry of defence and sought their responses within four weeks.

In July 2022, the top court stayed prosecution of the personnel belonging to Alpha team of 21 Para (Special Forces) on petitions from the wives of the accused. The wives claimed that their husbands were being prosecuted without the state obtaining mandatory sanction for prosecution from the Centre. Petitioners had also sought quashing of the FIRs. In February 2023, the Centre refused to sanction prosecution of these personnel.
“The competent authority in the Union govt has, without application of mind and going through the entire material collected by the special investigation team (SIT of state police) during the course of investigation, arbitrarily and against public interest refused sanction to prosecute the accused Army-men,” Nagaland govt told the bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra as quoted by Times of India.

The state said the Army ambush team had opened fire on a Bolero pickup carrying coal miners without challenging or asking them to identify themselves. The ambush team had claimed that they had positively identified those killed as they were carrying a gun and weapons, wearing dark clothes and had quickly jumped into the vehicle. “The above factors are common among villagers in Nagaland. Army surveillance team had no basic knowledge about ground realities in Nagaland, where it is common to carry hunting guns,” the state said.

After the initial ambush killed six civilians, angry villagers clashed with the Army. This led to the death of seven more villagers and a soldier.