Manipur HC constitutes committee; search on for missing Meitei man

Imphal (The Uttam Hindu): The Manipur High Court has constituted a four-member committee to conduct an enquiry in connection with a 56-year-old man from the Meitei community remaining untraced for the 10th day on Wednesday, officials said. A Home Department official said that the Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice D Krishnakumar and Justice Golmei Gaiphulshillu Kabui heard the petition filed by the brother of the missing person and constituted the committee headed by the District Magistrate of Kangpokpi District.

The other members of the committee include, Superintendent of Police of Kangpokpi and Imphal West Districts and Commanding Officer of the 57 Mountain Division, Signal Regiment. Police officials said that the Army has deployed over 2,000 soldiers including Assam Rifles personnel and is conducting hectic searches in Kangpokpi and adjoining districts to locate Laishram Kamalbabu Singh, who has been missing since November 25. The Army as part of their search operation deployed tracker dogs, drones and other devices. A Joint Action Committee (JAC) and various civil society organisations continued their sit-in protests at different places demanding immediate rescue of the “kidnapped” man.

The JAC, constituted to spearhead the agitation against the “abduction” of Kamalbabu Singh also continued its sit-in protest at Kanto Sabal, around 3 km from the Leimakhong Military Station of the 57th Mountain Division. Singh's wife Akoijam Belarani also participated in the protests. The Army barricaded the road leading to the military station. The women's wing of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), the apex body of the majority Meitei community, also separately agitated demanding the rescue of the “kidnapped” man. Kamalbabu Singh, a resident of Gossaipur under Cachar district in southern Assam, who was staying at Loitang Khunou village in Imphal West district, left his residence on November 25 for the Leimakhong military station, where he was working as a supervisor for a contractor working with the Military Engineering Services (MES), but went missing.

The Army officials are continuously interacting with village heads and community elders to gather information to further intensify the search operation, a Defence spokesman said adding that the CCTV feeds have been scanned, Singh’s co-workers were being spoken to, and an intense search operation, including with the aid of sniffer dogs, has been launched. Chief Minister N. Biren Singh earlier urged the Army to undertake all-out efforts to locate and rescue Kamalbabu Singh and take responsibility for finding the missing person. Leimakhong military station, located 16 km away from the capital Imphal, is surrounded by Kuki-Zo-Hmar tribal-dominated areas. After the ethnic violence broke out in Manipur in May last year, people belonging to the Meitei community fled the areas near Leimakhong village.