Agartala, Feb. 25: The Tripura government and police top brass are deeply concerned over the growing incidence of indiscipline among jawans of the Tripura State Rifles.

During the past week, jawans of the TSR 6th battalion have been twice accused, once for rape and murder and then again for rape.

In the first incident, the body of an indigenous women, Nilima Debbarma, 35, was found near the TSR’s camp at Shikaribari village under Champahaor police station in Khowai subdivision of West Tripura district. Nilima was a candidate of the National Conference of Tripura (NCT) for the village committee polls.

Three TSR jawans were arrested in connection with the murder, though post-mortem found no trace of rape. It, however, confirmed that she had been murdered by strangulation. Sources said though rape was not committed, there was an alleged attempt at rape and when Nilima resisted, she was allegedly killed.

Again, on Wednesday evening, a jawan of the TSR’s Nandakumarpara camp was accused of raping a 16-year-old indigenous girl. Angry villagers ransacked the camp, damaged the assets in it and set fire to it. A jawan was arrested and sent to police custody for interrogation. Official sources in the health department again confirmed that medical check-up had revealed that the girl had not been raped. Other sources said the teenager had been allegedly molested.

DIG (operation) Nepal Das said the jawans might have been guilty in the first incident and legal proceedings would be carried out against them but the second incident seemed to have been faked.

“Medical test does not indicate rape but then the villagers, egged on by NCT party leaders, attacked the camp and set it on fire. This smacks of a conspiracy which we are looking into,” he said.

Das indicated that the police authorities were contemplating measures to restore discipline in the force.

“The real problem is that now, when there is no insurgency, there is nothing to keep the jawans of all the 12 battalions engaged from morning till evening and this may be creating problems,” Das said, adding that when insurgency was on, the jawans hardly had time to think of anything else other than the heavy and risk-ridden counter-insurgency operations.

Besides, TSR battalions are now run by additional SP-level officers of the Tripura Police Service cadre who lack the orientation to keep the jawans engaged in peace time with exercises such as parades twice a day, cleaning work and other odd jobs.

“The commandants who are aware of the culture of armed paramilitary forces know how to keep the jawans engaged in different works on a daily basis when there is no active duty or deployment for armed action. The officers commanding the battalions now must do the same,” Das said, adding that he was reflecting the views of the upper echelons of police department.

He indicated that the DGP would soon call a meeting to discuss the problems confronting the TSR and its much-vaunted discipline, which helped it emerge as a successful paramilitary force against insurgents.

Das said the first battalion TSR had passed out in December 1985 and since then 11 more battalions have passed out. “This force has worked wonders in fighting insurgency over the past three decades. In fact, the TSR is the only force that scares away insurgents but during peace time, discipline has eroded.”

He said TSR jawans had been accused of excesses and human rights violations earlier, too.

Citing a few examples, he said in November 1999, TSR jawans had shot dead three tribal youths in cold blood in Kutnabari area in Sadar (north), suspecting them to be collaborators, after five of their colleagues had died in an ambush by ATTF militants. In August 2003, TSR jawans had shot dead three tribal school students on suspicion that they were militant collaborators. They had been accused of excesses in other cases also and in some places in the hilly interiors, people, goaded by parties like the INPT, the NCT and the IPFT, had raised demand for their removal from counter-insurgency duty.

“All the allegations were looked into and action was taken when justified. But this present indiscipline is a new phenomenon and more serious. We are taking measures to stop this from escalating,” Das added.