Sanjit Meitei, 22, was shot dead by the police in Imphal in July, 2009

Six years after a 22-year-old man suspected to be a militant was shot dead in Manipur, a policeman has admitted that he was unarmed and shot in cold blood.



Sanjit Meitei, suspected to be a member of People's Liberation Army, was shot dead in 2009 on a busy street in state capital Imphal. He was reportedly working as a hospital attendant at the time.



Herojit Singh, the head constable who shot him, has alleged that he was asked to "finish off" Sanjit by a senior officer who assured him that the order had been cleared by the police chief and the Chief Minister.



Mr Singh has been quoted by the Indian Express as saying that he "felt no remorse at the time and he was making the admission now because he feared for his life."



Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Delhi that he would "look into" the case.

The police had claimed that Sanjit had taken out a gun during police frisking, opened fire and then run away.

Herojit Singh is one of the nine policemen being investigated by the CBI, which took over the case in 2010.The killing had sparked anger after photographs showed Sanjit being taken to a medicine store on July 23, 2009, and then his body being brought out some time later. A woman who was in the vicinity was also shot dead.The police had claimed that Sanjit had taken out a gun during police frisking, opened fire and then run away. Their report said a police party followed the young man into the Maimu pharmacy and retaliated when he fired at them. They also claimed that a 9 mm pistol was found clutched in his hand.Mr Singh has, however, said Sanjit was holding nothing but a mobile phone.The Express quotes him as saying: "I shot him six or seven times, all in the torso. I'm sure Sanjit must have known that I had come back to kill him. I am sure he knew that when I was about to shoot him. But he didn't say anything. He didn't have any arms (weapons) on him. Just the mobile phone we had found earlier. Then the others came and took away his body."