Release Journalist Kishorchandra who has been arrested again based on fabricated FIR
The Issue
An indigenous Manipuri TV journalist, Kishorechandra has been arrested again based on “fabricated FIR" for a Facebook post and remains imprisoned for over a month now, without any trial or court hearing just because he responded to a Instagram post made by wife of a high-profile BJP politician.
He was arrested on 29th September based on “fabricated FIR", for responding to a viral social media post made by a high-profile BJP politician Okram Henry’s legally wedded first wife, Ms Victoria Quiyo, who belongs to Maram tribal community. The post was in response to a reportedly derogatory comment and a “racial slur” about her made by the alleged second wife or partner, Ms Richest Rani Laishram, of her high-profile BJP politician husband, Okram Henry.
During 2016, the high-profile BJP politician husband, Okram Henry, was summoned to the special court in a drug haul case hearing. Okram Henry was one of the five persons charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s Kolkata unit in a case related to the seizing of a huge consignment of drugs at the Imphal airport on January 11, 2013. The consignment was reportedly brought to the Imphal airport from Kolkata in an Air Deccan flight.
The Manipuri journalist, Kishorechandra responding on Facebook to the post of the high-profile BJP politician’s wife, just asked whether the derogatory comment of the “second wife” belonging to the Meetei community against the “first wife” from the Maram tribal community would affect the politician’s prospects in the polls, as his constituency has a considerable number of tribal voters.
The Manipur police had opted to turn a blind eye to the alleged post by the second wife the BJP politician, but suddenly swung into action after Kishorechandra comment which pointed out the capacity for communal disharmony in a Facebook post made by a Meetei second wife the BJP politician against the Maram wife of the same BJP politician.
His arrest based on “fabricated FIR" and illegal detention has been politically motivated. According to his wife Ranjita Elangbam, there is political pressure at play which has led to complacency and inaction over the arrest. Ranjita also scoffed at Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s condemnation of the Arnab Goswami’s arrest, calling out the concern as disingenuous.
Ranjita Elangbam said, “My husband’s post was to admonish the Meetei community woman for airing a derogatory comment about a Maram community woman and causing communal disharmony. Instead, he has been accused of it now.”
Ranjita Elangbam is weak after giving birth to a baby recently (September 02, 2020) and few days after the arrest of her husband, she went to give some food to him at the police custody of Imphal Police Station but one of the security guards told her “You cannot meet him like any other normal detainees nor give any food from outside”, and further told there was an instruction from "higher authority" not to let anyone meet Kishorchandra or provide food from outside while other detainees were allowed to get food from outside.
Kishorchandra is a social activist and prominent critic of the government‘s non-performance, and his arrest is an apparent case of politically motivated and driven by vendetta. Ignoring his actual "promoting unity" message/meaning of the post, the government picked up just the two expletive words Kishorchanda had quoted and falsely accused him of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of race.
Use of such expletives has become a routine social media behaviour that one observes on the platform almost everyday. If one runs a search of two controversial words Kishorchandra had quoted on social media platforms, several posts using the same words loaded with hate and anger against a community or communities will come up. When no action was taken up against such posts, the arrest and detention of Kishorchandra, who voiced against use of such words against a community, is politically-motivated and driven by vendetta, said a journalist on condition of anonymity.
The illegal detention of Manipur Journalist Kishorchandra is a case of reprisal against a human rights defender for exercising his fundamental rights guaranteed through Article 19 of the Indian Constitution and malafide baseless actions by the Manipur police which seem to be politically motivated with the nature of the uncompounded charges.
Earlier, in April 2018, the Manipur journalist Kishorechandra was arrested under sedition charges and then under the draconian National Security Act (NSA) by the BJP-led Manipur government for his statement against the Chief Minister N. Biren Singh. He had condemned his decision to commemorate Rani of Jhansi's battle against the British in Imphal and had alleged that Rani Lakshmibai had nothing to do with Manipur and criticized the BJP govt’s move to malign the indigenous history of Manipur. In 2019, the high court had quashed the charges against him and released him from jail.
Manipur, the ancient kingdom in Southeast Asia has proud written records of over 2000 years and journalist Kishorechandra, a resident citizen of this ancient kingdom has been arrested again based on “fabricated FIR" and remains imprisoned for over a month now, without any trial or court hearing for simply commenting on a reportedly derogatory comment and a “racial slur” made by the alleged second wife or partner, Ms Richest Rani Laishram, of a high-profile BJP politician husband, Okram Henry.
Apart from the fear that rises as coronavirus cases and deaths hit new high in Manipur, his family is scattered and broken after he is jailed for crime which was in reality committed by others. He deserves to be released and allowed to return to his family where his two beautiful small daughters and newly born boy are eagerly waiting for their dad’s return since September 2020.
Actions by the Manipur government are a grave violation of the right to freedom of expression and have been repeatedly used to silence journalists and human rights defenders. Please join in demanding justice for journalist Kishorechandra and we remain very very hopeful that good people and noble organisations will intervene and help release journalist Kishorchandra unconditionally.
***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***
News Media Links:
https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-journalist-continues-to-be-jailed-facebook-posts-in-bjp-ruled-manipur/363615/
https://thefrontiermanipur.com/global-press-bodies-tell-pm-modi-to-stop-harassment-of-journalists/
https://thewire.in/politics/manipur-congress-okram-henry-singh-biren-bjp-ram-madhav/
The Issue
An indigenous Manipuri TV journalist, Kishorechandra has been arrested again based on “fabricated FIR" for a Facebook post and remains imprisoned for over a month now, without any trial or court hearing just because he responded to a Instagram post made by wife of a high-profile BJP politician.
He was arrested on 29th September based on “fabricated FIR", for responding to a viral social media post made by a high-profile BJP politician Okram Henry’s legally wedded first wife, Ms Victoria Quiyo, who belongs to Maram tribal community. The post was in response to a reportedly derogatory comment and a “racial slur” about her made by the alleged second wife or partner, Ms Richest Rani Laishram, of her high-profile BJP politician husband, Okram Henry.
During 2016, the high-profile BJP politician husband, Okram Henry, was summoned to the special court in a drug haul case hearing. Okram Henry was one of the five persons charge-sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s Kolkata unit in a case related to the seizing of a huge consignment of drugs at the Imphal airport on January 11, 2013. The consignment was reportedly brought to the Imphal airport from Kolkata in an Air Deccan flight.
The Manipuri journalist, Kishorechandra responding on Facebook to the post of the high-profile BJP politician’s wife, just asked whether the derogatory comment of the “second wife” belonging to the Meetei community against the “first wife” from the Maram tribal community would affect the politician’s prospects in the polls, as his constituency has a considerable number of tribal voters.
The Manipur police had opted to turn a blind eye to the alleged post by the second wife the BJP politician, but suddenly swung into action after Kishorechandra comment which pointed out the capacity for communal disharmony in a Facebook post made by a Meetei second wife the BJP politician against the Maram wife of the same BJP politician.
His arrest based on “fabricated FIR" and illegal detention has been politically motivated. According to his wife Ranjita Elangbam, there is political pressure at play which has led to complacency and inaction over the arrest. Ranjita also scoffed at Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh’s condemnation of the Arnab Goswami’s arrest, calling out the concern as disingenuous.
Ranjita Elangbam said, “My husband’s post was to admonish the Meetei community woman for airing a derogatory comment about a Maram community woman and causing communal disharmony. Instead, he has been accused of it now.”
Ranjita Elangbam is weak after giving birth to a baby recently (September 02, 2020) and few days after the arrest of her husband, she went to give some food to him at the police custody of Imphal Police Station but one of the security guards told her “You cannot meet him like any other normal detainees nor give any food from outside”, and further told there was an instruction from "higher authority" not to let anyone meet Kishorchandra or provide food from outside while other detainees were allowed to get food from outside.
Kishorchandra is a social activist and prominent critic of the government‘s non-performance, and his arrest is an apparent case of politically motivated and driven by vendetta. Ignoring his actual "promoting unity" message/meaning of the post, the government picked up just the two expletive words Kishorchanda had quoted and falsely accused him of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of race.
Use of such expletives has become a routine social media behaviour that one observes on the platform almost everyday. If one runs a search of two controversial words Kishorchandra had quoted on social media platforms, several posts using the same words loaded with hate and anger against a community or communities will come up. When no action was taken up against such posts, the arrest and detention of Kishorchandra, who voiced against use of such words against a community, is politically-motivated and driven by vendetta, said a journalist on condition of anonymity.
The illegal detention of Manipur Journalist Kishorchandra is a case of reprisal against a human rights defender for exercising his fundamental rights guaranteed through Article 19 of the Indian Constitution and malafide baseless actions by the Manipur police which seem to be politically motivated with the nature of the uncompounded charges.
Earlier, in April 2018, the Manipur journalist Kishorechandra was arrested under sedition charges and then under the draconian National Security Act (NSA) by the BJP-led Manipur government for his statement against the Chief Minister N. Biren Singh. He had condemned his decision to commemorate Rani of Jhansi's battle against the British in Imphal and had alleged that Rani Lakshmibai had nothing to do with Manipur and criticized the BJP govt’s move to malign the indigenous history of Manipur. In 2019, the high court had quashed the charges against him and released him from jail.
Manipur, the ancient kingdom in Southeast Asia has proud written records of over 2000 years and journalist Kishorechandra, a resident citizen of this ancient kingdom has been arrested again based on “fabricated FIR" and remains imprisoned for over a month now, without any trial or court hearing for simply commenting on a reportedly derogatory comment and a “racial slur” made by the alleged second wife or partner, Ms Richest Rani Laishram, of a high-profile BJP politician husband, Okram Henry.
Apart from the fear that rises as coronavirus cases and deaths hit new high in Manipur, his family is scattered and broken after he is jailed for crime which was in reality committed by others. He deserves to be released and allowed to return to his family where his two beautiful small daughters and newly born boy are eagerly waiting for their dad’s return since September 2020.
Actions by the Manipur government are a grave violation of the right to freedom of expression and have been repeatedly used to silence journalists and human rights defenders. Please join in demanding justice for journalist Kishorechandra and we remain very very hopeful that good people and noble organisations will intervene and help release journalist Kishorchandra unconditionally.
***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***~***
News Media Links:
https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-journalist-continues-to-be-jailed-facebook-posts-in-bjp-ruled-manipur/363615/
https://thefrontiermanipur.com/global-press-bodies-tell-pm-modi-to-stop-harassment-of-journalists/
https://thewire.in/politics/manipur-congress-okram-henry-singh-biren-bjp-ram-madhav/
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Petition created on 8 November 2020