Involvement of foreign agencies cannot be ruled out: Ex-army chief M M Naravane on Manipur violence
New Delhi, Jul 28: Former army chief general M M Naravane Friday said the involvement of foreign agencies in the Manipur violence "cannot be ruled out", as he flagged the "Chinese aid to various insurgent groups".
General (retd) Naravane said instability in border states is bad for the country's overall national security.
He was responding to questions on the protracted violence in Manipur while interacting with journalists at the India International Centre on the topic 'National Security Perspective'.
"I am sure that those who are in the chair and responsible for taking whatever action is due to be taken are doing their best," General (retd) Naravane said. "The involvement of the foreign agencies, not only I say, cannot be ruled out but I will say they are definitely there, especially Chinese aid to various insurgent groups."
The former chief of the army staff said the Chinese aid has been helping these groups for years and will continue to do so even now.
On a question about the role of drug trafficking in the ongoing violence in the northeastern state, General (retd) Naravane said drug smuggling has been there for a very long time and the amount of drug which has been recovered has only increased over years.
"We are just a little remote from the Golden Triangle (the area where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet). Myanmar is always in a state of disarray and military rule. Even at the best of times in Myanmar, the government only had control over the central Myanmar not really on the peripheral bordering state whether with India or with China or with Thailand. So drug trafficking has always been there," he said.
He added, "There will probably be agencies or other actors in the game who benefit from the violence and who would not want a situation of normalcy to get on because while this instability is there, they stand to benefit."
"That might be one of the reasons why we are seeing this continuance of violence in spite of all the efforts, which I am sure have been put in by the state and the central governments to bring it down," he said.
General (retd) Naravane was also asked a variety of questions related to army recruitment scheme Agnipath, restructuring in the Indian defence sector and the China-India skirmishes at the Galwan valley.
Talking about Agnipath, he said only time will tell whether it is a good scheme or not.
"Agnipath was launched after a great deal of deliberations. Many people say that it was launched due to financial and pecuniary reasons. That is also going to have an impact but the fact is that we need a young army," he said.
When asked to give reasons behind the violent clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan valley in May 2020, he said it is something he is not able to make out. "Post-Galwan, that is the first thing that we used to ask each other -- why did China do this."
"Was it a localised action or did it have sanctions or blessings from the higher-ups? When the whole world was grappling with Covid, why did it undertake such a misadventure? I say misadventure because finally it had to go back but we are really not being able to fathom what the reason was. Or was it a combination of many factors including the creation of two union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh," General Naravane said.
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Thane court sentences man to life imprisonment for bludgeoning wife to death
Thane (PTI): A court in Maharashtra's Thane district sentenced a man to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of his wife, whom he attacked 22 times with a hammer in front of his children, based on the testimony of his 13-year-old daughter.
Principal district and sessions judge S B Agrawal found the accused, Vijay Mishra alias Samir Shaikh, guilty under sections 302 (murder) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The court sentenced him to life imprisonment and a three-year term to be served concurrently. It also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh for the murder charge and an additional Rs 10,000 for injuring his minor daughter and mother-in-law, who had tried to intervene during the fatal attack.
Additional public prosecutor Rashmi Kshirsagar informed that 11 prosecution witnesses, including the accused's daughter, were examined during the trial.
According to the prosecution, the victim, Zarin Israr Ansari, had been living with her mother, along with her daughter and a six-year-old son, for two years following prolonged domestic violence and disputes.
The accused, who had converted to Islam to marry Zarin 14 years prior, harboured deep resentment over her living separately and suspected her character.
On the afternoon of September 28, 2023, the accused stormed into his mother-in-law's residence in Mumbra with a hammer concealed in a bag, cornered his wife on the mezzanine floor, dragged her down, locked the main door, and repeatedly bludgeoned her.
The court defended the testimony of the victim's 13-year-old daughter, who was an eyewitness and had sustained injuries herself, noting that minor inconsistencies do not degrade the core truth of an innocent child's account:
"...they are not of any significant consequence since it is not expected from such a witness of 10 years of age to have a total photographic memory to be reproduced before the court. But as far as the incident is concerned, evidence of this witness is totally free from any reasonable doubt."
The prosecution had also stated that the accused had locked his family inside and threatened a neighbour by brandishing a "bomb-like thing" and declaring he would blow up the building if anyone intervened.
The victim's brother eventually broke down the latched door, disarmed the accused, and pinned him down until the police arrived.
The post-mortem report revealed that the victim had suffered 22 brutal injuries and had died due to severe head wounds.
