Manipur: Scribe, activist held over FB posts

Imphal, May 15 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Manipur police have arrested a journalist and a political activist over their Facebook posts reportedly criticising the the ruling BJP leaders, police said on Saturday.

A police official said that Imphal-based journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem and political activist Erendro Leichombam were arrested on Thursday evening from their homes on the basis of a complaint filed against the duo by Manipur state BJP Vice-President Usham Deban party General Secretary P. Premananda Meetei.

The complaint said that Wangkhem and Leichombam have posted offensive comments referring to the death of state BJP President Saikhom Tikendra Singh, who fell prey to Covid-19 at a hospital in Imphal on Thursday.

Referring to Singh's death, the detainees in Manipuri language had posted comments saying "cow dung and cow urine do not work".

Police said that the duo would remain in custody till May 17.

Wangkhem and Leichombam, both around 40-years, had been arrested twice earlier on charges of sedition and for making various posts on social media against the government.

Leichombam is the founder of the People's Resurgence and Justice Alliance, a political party whose candidate in the 2017 Manipur elections included rights activist Irom Sharmila, who unsuccessfully fought the polls after she broke her 16-year long fast for the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act from Manipur.

Studied abroad, Leichombam also unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls in 2017.Rights activists and various Manipur based organisations and elsewhere in the country had criticised the government for "overreacting".

Source: IANS