Thounaojam Brinda, a decorated officer of Manipur Police had resigned from service under tumultuous circumstances. She is known for her aggressive operation against drugs, narco terrorism and poppy infestation in Manipur. She was a nightmare for drug cartel. The officer who was awarded Gallantry by the CM in 2018 for her crusade against drugs, had resigned from the force in 2021 alleging interference from the same Chief Minister -N Biren Singh. Brinda spoke with NTT and divulged a plethora of unknown facts.
NTT: There are many people who are suggesting that there could be an element of narco-terrorism behind this. Do you believe that there is this possibility behind this?
Brinda: The present situation of Manipur is an accumulated effect of bad government policy that has been going on for the last 70 years, and accentuated by drug mafia. Because if we look back into our history, poppy cultivation and this drug proliferation started from the late 80’s and it aggravated from there onwards. There is again, another co-lateral that lays the rise in militancy in the hills, with the rise in the drug proliferation and poppy cartel. So, the present situation that we are seeing, hasn’t taken place in one day, but over many decades, and the immediate spark that has led to this conflict right now, has been given by the narcotics mafia that comprises of many many powerful individuals.
NTT: What gives you the confidence to say that? How are you so sure that it is because of drug mafias, and narco terrorism that the problem has accentuated to this level?
Brinda: No. 1, I am a Manipuri, I have been born and brought up here, I love my land before anything else. So, naturally for any patriot, he or she has to know her history and I know my history. I was an activist, then I became a police and as a police, I worked for the narcotics unit and I know it.
NTT: When you say that the high and mighty are involved, how deep rooted is this?
Brinda: It is very deep-rooted, especially the nexus between the government and the narcotics mafia.
NTT: When you say government involvement, what exactly does that mean?
Brinda: Government at different levels, because when we see poppy, grown in the hill districts of Manipur, we know. The hill districts of Manipur are infested with poppy cultivation. This infestation has not taken place in one day, one year, or even a decade, it has taken decades. So, the immediate question that comes into any reasonable police officer’s mind is that, could this have taken place without the active and passive encouragement of the state administration. This how the hill districts function, the state departments are there, central departments are there, the central forces are there, the state police is there. So, when this cartel has spread in the poppy fields, it has spread like wild fire in the hills over the last 30 years. So, does it mean that the state administration is not present in the hills? Secondly, even the government of Manipur has admitted that militants under the suspension of operation are involved in drugs. So, these militants are supposed to be in the custody of the state government. Since they have entered into a tripartite agreement between the government of India, the government of Manipur and these militant groups, the very groups that are supposed to be in the custody of the government of Manipur, whose weapons have been surrendered, they are given a certain amount of weapons to guard their designative camps. We find them roaming around, collecting taxes, involved in human trafficking, in drugs, collecting taxes from poppy fields, from drug cartels, they themselves are involved in drugs activities. Then what is the involvement of the government of Manipur, which is in control, who are in custody of these militants?
NTT: I was talking to these professionals from the Assam Rifles, and the official statements suggest that in the past 2-3 years that they have seized drugs worth 35 thousand crores, that possibly indicates how vulnerable that corridor is. Which are the points that you would identify as most vulnerable?
Brinda: In Manipur, we have 6 routes that pass from Myanmar to Manipur. Only 1 of them is manned, the Tegnoupal Highway, only this highway is manned; rest of the highways, they are not manned. They are completely open. I do not understand why they are open, a question that I have asked the government many times, why are you leaving all these highways open, and putting up a show on the Tegnoupal highway, why?
NTT: The smuggling which is happening from Myanmar, allegedly coming to India from these routes, would you say that the checkpoints are not being kept deliberately?
Brinda: That is the rationality that I am trying to find in the conduct of the state government because if they are sincerely conducting this war on drugs, why are they leaving this corridor wide open?
NTT: How do you react or respond when you see N.Biren Singh, the current Chief Minister say that this is his war against drugs? The fact that it has seen such retaliation from the people, he is saying that because he is taking the right step in the elimination of drugs from the state, for the interest of India’s national security, is thus, these protests are happening.
Brinda: No, see, politicians they claim anything, but, we have to corroborate their claims. As a police with the narcotics, from a time when I was working, I will give you an example. If there is war, there are three elements that are required, you need an army or a force, you need weapons, and you need money. So, in NAB, when I was posted, I had 150 personnel, but whenever an IO would conduct an investigation in depth, they would automatically get transferred. The IO, if he or she would deep a bit deeper into the case, they would automatically be transferred out. Slowly slowly the manpower was reduced. So, there NAB, is controlling the entire state, in terms of narcotics, and the foreign influx and arms, these are the three starters of the unit. So, a unit that is responsible for taking on these drugs, if there is real war, its manpower and strength should be increased, it was decreased. No.2, weapons, we had no adequate weapons. So, we are supposed to be given all the assistance by the home department. No.3, there was no source money. When you seize drugs, you need a huge amount of money because we have two sources of intelligence, one is the state legal interception unit, which is supposed to uncover these crimes, detect crimes, to detect these criminals, but we do not have access to that unit. We don’t know what this is being utilized for, so, we had access to only human intelligence, whom, we call as human. Once you seize the drugs, you have to give 30% of the market value of these seized drugs to the source immediately. So, when you seize drugs worth one crore, you immediately have to give 30 lakhs. So, these are huge amounts of money that you require for these seizures, and no money was sanctioned by the government if Manipur. So, the three elements required in war, are not present in this war. Here, my question is, is there real war? From my experience, there never was war, and there never is war because when the Chief Minister orders the officer, who arrested this politician with drugs from his own premises, when the Chief Minister orders illegally to release the person in exchange of his wife or son, how genuine is he in this war?
NTT: I need to know names, why can’t you take names? You had arrested somebody, who is that somebody? When did you arrest him and under what charges?
Brinda: Yes, Lukhosei Zou, he was the chairman of the ADC from Tengoupal. I arrested him in June 2018. He was arrested with drugs from his premises, in possession. It was a huge operation that lasted over 14 hours. We seized drugs from his driver’s quarter, bags and suitcases full of Heroine and WI tablets. Another one was recovered from Mantripukhri, from his relative’s house. Huge amount of drugs and money in lakhs. The last one was recovered from his residence, 2 lakhs WI tablets from his premises.
NTT: Which political party did he belong to?
Brinda: He was with BJP at that time. So, the minister sent the Vice President of BJP, Manipur to my residence.
NTT: N.Biren Singh sent the BJP Vice President to your residence?
Brinda: Yes, and ordered that I release that chairman in exchange of his wife or son, because he turned out to be the right-hand man of his second wife, who is the elected MLA from the Chandel constituency of Manipur. It was the order that he gave.
NTT: This was N.Biren Singh’s second wife, who is the current MLA, and this man, the former ADC was her right-hand person, that’s what you claim?
Brinda: Yes, his second wife.
NTT: When the Vice President came to your house, and asked to release that man, what did you do?
Brinda: I told him that it’s not possible because we seized the drugs from him, his wife and son are not the culprits, and that cannot be done. After all, I conducted the operation with 150 police personnel, what am I going to tell them? He may sacrifice Manipur and her interest for his second wife, but I am there. Go and tell him that I am there for Manipur and I will face everything. He went back, and then he came back again and told me that the second wife was furious because I refused to hit her order, but then I sent him back again and told him that this is not going to work on me. He came back for a third time, and I sent him back again. They can do anything that they want, but, I will not listen to them, this is what happened.
NTT: Then what happened and was he produced before the court?
Brinda: I went ahead with the arrest. He was produced before the court and sent to jail for a few months, I think from June to December, I guess. In December, we submitted our charge sheet before the expiration of these 380 days not to let him open well because by then he was already playing this drama that he needed bail on medical grounds. Knowing that he was fooling around, we investigated thoroughly and there was a huge argument in the court that this man was faking his medical condition. We needed to present him before a medical board, which is mandatory. They refused to go to the medical board and after that he was given a preliminary bail for a few days to get his gallbladder stone operated but he disappeared from the Genomes Hospital. The man disappeared from the hospital before the disappearance on December 14, 2018, the then DGP called the SP and me to his and gave order that the honorable Chief Minister had ordered him that we must remove the charge sheet from the court.
NTT: How would you remove the charge sheet from the court?
Brinda: Exactly! So, I told him that there are only two conditions under which a charge sheet can be removed from the court. One, when the IO is not satisfied and there are lapses, and some more investigation needs to be done, in that case, the IO can file an application to remove the charge sheet. Second, this is when the judge is not satisfied with the charge sheet and then he returns it back to us. Both of these conditions are not available in in the present case, so, it was not possible for us to remove the charge sheet. So I told that to the DGP, the DGP told us that you have done everything that you want, now why don’t you just let things go easy. He then said that she asked him to remove the charge sheet. I did not say anything, we just left his office and came out and again in the evening, my SP was again by this minister, he came back running. At that time, we were having a meeting with the prosecution, additional SP and the prosecution PI. We were having a meeting in my office about this pressure, and then we were discussing that this has never taken place in the whole world. If we do this, we are all doomed. We can never listen to this order. This is what we were discussing when my SP came running back, all covered in sweat, his heart was thumping, ad he was visibly under a lot of stress. He came back and told us that Honorable is very furious, his eyes were popping out, we have to remove the charge sheet. However, we took a unanimous decision that we will not do it. The next day, the then OC and IO went to the court to find out the whereabouts of the charge sheet, to see if it was safe there. While they were there, the then Imphal SP along with the lawyer of the accused came to the court and asked the PP to hand over the charge sheet to them. When the PP refused, they again asked the OC to remove the charge sheet from the court. The OC refused, and then they went inside the court office and they said everything and they left. They just found out that this took place in the court, which is a huge anomaly, legally they can never do this. They can never come and interfere in the court. So, the judge called upon the OC, the IO, the PP and me and inquired about the incident and they told us to submit an affidavit. To the judge about what happened on December 15. The OC gave his affidavit, the PP gave his affidavit and then all hell broke loose. It was all over the news. The Chief Minister called me and gave a through scolding in his bungalow, and after that, the accused disappeared from Manipur. The judge got transferred, a new judge came and suddenly the accused appeared saying that he was kidnapped by Kuki militants based in Myanmar and that he had been released and that he wanted to surrender in court when a new judge was in place. In between that the remnants of the case that returned from the FSL to the police station was lost. So, they tried to build up a case that that was based on technical grounds because of laws of remnants that the case would fail, which I again vehemently argued in the court that we should conduct an enquiry into these remains because the loss benefits only a few certain people and it is the accused and not the police. Hence, we have to find if they have any hand I the loss of the remnants, which is highly possible. This is what took place and eventually the judge let the accuse leave on bail and acquitted the man and left only with two young boys, the driver and another young boy.
NTT: What happened to you?
Brinda: I kept on fighting with the Chief Minister. He filed so many cases against me. A defamation suit, demanding 50 crores, 550 crores in total from all the respondents. He has met everybody, all his aides filed cases against me, filed FIRs against me, and so I have been battling till now. These things are going on and then we are coming to these days.
NTT: What happened after that, did you resign?
Brinda: I had to resign ultimately. I was transferred out of NAB. Almost in suspension kind of position, was sent to one department and no duty was assigned to me. I later resigned from Manipur Police. I have already filed an affidavit in the High Court and waiting for the case to reopen. I can then submit all the evidence and the people of Manipur know the truth.
NTT: So you don’t believe the chief minister that this is his fight against the drug?
Brinda: No, N Biren Singh isn't fighting against drugs, he is rather a part of it.
NTT: Are you saying he is benefitted out of it?
Brinda: Yes, He is a part of the drug cartel. He is protecting them, he is their patron.
NTT: When you say high and mighty are involved in this, aren’t you scared?
Brinda: No, I am not scared, never!
NTT: What proof do you have that the CM is actually saving the mafias? You are making a serious charge against the Chief Minister, he has already filed so many cases against you.
Brinda: I want the case of ADC to reopen & start in court. Then I have to submit all the evidences I have against him and his second wife. I have all the proof with me how they protected & acquitted the arrested ADC chairman. The government failed to control the situation in Churachandpur on May 3. Why? Why it took long. Later he admitted that there was intelligence failure. The question is didn’t the police inform him that the kind of violence that had erupted by 11.30 in the morning. By 3.30 pm the violence had reached the civilian population. What took so long to respond to the crisis? There were central forces and riot control forces already deployed on the highway on May 3, by morning and then the number increased in afternoon and by evening the internet was suspended. What made him deploy forces even before the violence broke out.
NTT: You also have a political identity, you have contested election. How would you defend if someone says that your allegations are politically motivated?
Brinda: I was fighting the last two governments before I joined politics. Never favored anyone. I was forced join politics. As a police I couldn’t do anything to improve the condition of the people of my state.
NTT: Do you think this is actually ethnic violence?
Brinda: No, this is not ethnic violence. The current issue is a fight between anti-Manipur entities who are backed by the drug mafia, and this drug mafia is completely controlled by this top three echelon of the entire cartel, whom I categorically classify into four categories. Firstly, in the top level are the politicians and the drug lords who work hand in hand together. Secondly, are the financiers and the middle men, who operate between the producers and the top echelon. Thirdly, is the militant groups, these militant groups are all people from suspension operations and lastly are the peddlers and the poppy farmers who share the minimum amount of profit and are the hand to mouth people. The majority of the profits are shared by these three levels. These three levels occupy the category of narco terrorists. These are the narco terrorists that are acting against the interest of the people, they are the ones feeding drugs to the people of Manipur. They are the ones who are arming these militants who are again organizing people to justify the claim that they need a separate administration that can organize Manipur. This is what is taking place. The whole crisis in Manipur is between people who want to break up Manipur backed by the narcotics mafia and the people of Manipur who love Manipur and want to save her.
NTT: The arms which are available now on both sides. How do you see that? Are you saying that all arms are illegal? Anybody holding an arm in a situation of this kind, as a police officer how would you categorize that?
Brinda: See, arms legally can only be owned under a license, during a crisis or otherwise if you hold an arm, it is illegal and it is a crime. In Manipur right now, the hills and the plains are fully armed.
NTT: Arms which are not legally procured, do you fear that they have all been pumped in by drug lords?
Brinda: The hills. The weapons are being pumped into the hills are funded by drug lords because to get these weapons, you need money, a huge amount of money. What is their funding? As for the arms in the valley, it cannot be funded by drugs. Many of them have been looted from the state armoury, and people must be using their licensed arms. This is the difference.
NTT: Do you find it surprising that it was looted from State Armory and not much of resistance was put up?
Brinda: It is very surprising that it is the question I have been putting up. What was the home minister doing at the time because all these battalions and police stations, they are guarded and are armed so why wasn't there any sort of resistance from any of these battalions and police when these arms were looted.
NTT: At this point if I give you an opportunity to figure out one person who is responsible for the current Manipur crisis who will that be?
Brinda: For any crisis that involves administrative failure and there are levels of primary responsibility and accountability that should be borne by the head of the government.
NTT: The Chief Minister?
Brinda: Yes, it is the chief minister who has to hold responsibility and the whole crisis for the last three months.
NTT: Is it because that he's been hated and abused by both sides because he's doing the right thing?
Brinda: But this shows that he has not been able to control the crisis, isn't it? He will be blamed automatically because he is responsible for governance, for administration, for Law and Order, everything that's why he has been elected. That's why he has been put in the chair by the people, isn't it? He is responsible for everything, he will be blamed automatically, naturally by both the communities because people are suffering. We want him to bring things under control. To restore normalcy which he has not been able to do effectively for the last three months so why is he trying to put the blame on the people instead of taking up his responsibility of holding himself accountable for his failure.
NTT: He wanted to resign once he said and then his resignation was thrown off.
Brinda: Do you believe in the drama that he put up? Can't we naturally make out that this was a drama? It's very obvious.
NTT: The poppy cultivation you are saying, is it the reality in the hills of Manipur?
Brinda: It is.
NTT: To what extent?
Brinda: It is, it is virulent. It is a pandemic status.
NTT: Any square kilometer assessment that you can give?
Brinda: See unfortunately the state agencies do not have any data and it is going on for over the last 30 years but we have failed to get any data on how much area is under public cultivation but it is virulent. When you go to the hills you will find out. So far, for three months Prime Minister of India has not given a statement about the happening in Manipur except for the 30 minute long, 30 second long statement that was given on the viral video except in that portion he hasn't issued any statement of what is taking place in Manipur till now and even the President of India has failed to acknowledge what is taking place in Manipur so it is a deliberate, ignorance of Manipur. They have been treating our state as a third class citizen since we emerged with India. Hence, we have been fighting for our life and the right to exist with dignity which we have not been given till now.
NTT: When you say there are many people involved, the high and mighty. You have taken the name of N.Biren, the current CM, and when you say more people are involved what are you indicating? Is it not restricted to him or are there more people from the party or can this also have its wings and tentacles outside Manipur?
Brinda: See the tentacles of the drug mafia, I feel that it has reached the Indian parliament directly or indirectly because these people are so capable that you know in the present case of this. They can creep into everywhere they have crept into all the institutions of the state missionaries, intelligence, finance, State Administration, State police department everywhere. I have been requesting the government of India that we fight this out together because it is already a national security threat and it is going to cost the nation heavily.
NTT: Have you written any letter in the past?
Brinda: I have written many
NTT: To?
Brinda: To the prime minister. We formed the body. It's a conglomeration of civil society organizations. We have written to the print minister, to the home minister, we have even filed cases in the Supreme Court, we've worked very hard. We have informed them, we have given a lot of report, confidential report, and confidential videos, everything that’s taking place in Manipur.
NTT: They have not responded?
Brinda: No, they have not responded.
NTT: There is no response from the government of India to all the letters, to all the evidences that you've given so far?
Brinda: Nothing.
