Politicians exposed

Major Events Vol. 3 Issue No. 34

September 1-15, 2007

Politicians exposed

North East News Agency

Though the politicians are claiming that they are innocent, the fact remains that in a major breakthrough, police commandos rounded up 12 suspected militants belonging to Manipur- based outfits – Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup, People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak, People’s Liberation Army and Kangleipak Communist Party from the official quarters of ruling MLAs.

Police also recovered disassembled parts of one M-16 rifle, one 9mm pistol along with 10 rounds of M-16, five rounds of pistol and five ‘demand letters’ of KYKL addressed to different businessmen here, from the quarter of Congress MLA W Brajabidhu of Lamsang Assembly consituency in Imphal West district. The others include sitting Congress MLAs Bijoy Koijam of Thongju, K Meghachandra of Wangkhem and ex-MLA N Sovakiran of Oinam.

Among the arrested persons, eight are KYKL members while two are KCP and one each of Prepak and PLA. The search took place at the high security MLA’s quarters colony known as Babupara VIP colony following a cordon and search operation carried out by Imphal West district police personnel under the directive of DIG range M Karnajit and SP Clay Khongsai around 4.30 in the morning.

Later, briefing the mediapersons, Yumnam Joykumar, DGP Manipur said, the operation was conducted as part of intensifying the counter insurgency operations in the State.

An FIR has been registered at Imphal police station and investigation is on, the DGP said. Four other cases have also been registered. When asked about the presence of the MLAs at the time of the UGs arrest, the police chief confirmed, “I think most of them (MLAs) were present”.

Ruling MLA W Brajabidhu and ex-MLA N Sovakiran were present at the time of arrest of eight KYKL members and one KCP member from their respective official quarters. The DGP said “we’ll take up the investigation very seriously and necessary action will be taken” adding “no one is above the law”.

“We intend to carry out more raids based on our intelligence inputs”, he added. The other KCP cadre and a bailed out PLA member were arrested from MLA Meghachandra’s quarter while bailed out Prepak member was nabbed from Bijoy Koijam’s place.

The recent raid on the VIP quarters here, which led to the arrest of 12 militants and seizure of arms from the residences of three Congress MLAs and a former legislator, was defended by a senior Manipur policeman. Superintendent of Police (Imphal West district) Clay Khongsai said the police had searched all VIP quarters on that day and not some ‘selected houses’. Asserting that the functioning of the police should not be termed as ‘politically motivated’, Khongsai said the search was launched as part of an operation to prevent violence during Independence Day celebrations. The clarification followed press reports alleging the search had been carried out at the houses of MLAs who were reportedly trying to replace Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh. The MLAs had termed the search operation a ‘conspiracy’ against dissident Congress legislators. Eight KYKL members, two cadres of People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak and one member each of PLA and KCP were arrested from the houses of Congress MLAs – W Brajabidhu Singh, Bijoy Koijam and K Meghachandra and former legislator W Sovakiran. Koijam and Meghachandra have denied links with militants and said it was not possible to check the antecedents of each and every visitor who came to meet them.

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