The 2019 letter written by UKLF chairman to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that current Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Ram Madhav, the BJP general secretary in-charge of Northeast, had taken help of these Kuki organizations to win the 2017 assembly elections.
TFM Desk
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has rubbished the claims made by United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF) chairman SS Haokip that Sarma and BJP leader Ram Madhav had taken help from armed Kuki groups to win the 2017 Assembly elections in Manipur.
In a signed statement issued on Tuesday, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that there had been some baseless allegations on “understanding with some UG leaders of Manipur” with the BJP leaders. The Assam Chief Minister asserted that “there is no engagement with any such elements”.
Himanta Biswa Sarma informed that 25 armed groups of Kuki/Zomi/Hmar ethnic communities were under the Suspension of Operation (SoO) in Manipur signed in 2008 the Congress was in power. He said that the purported statement was “written by the self-styled Chairman of one of these groups who was under investigation for his involvement in the arms pilferage case from the Kote of 2nd MR in 2018”.
The BJP state government transferred the case to National Investigative Agency (NIA) for probe, indicating its seriousness in such cases. “The involved persons were chargesheeted by the NIA, which negates any suspicion of any compromise as alleged in the appeal”, said Himanta Biswa Sarma.
“The said appeal is a desperate attempt by an individual to save himself. Any insinuation of understanding with the said individual is baseless and devoid of merit”, said the Assam Chief Minister.
It may be mentioned that the 2019 letter written by UKLF chairman to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah claimed that Sarma and Ram Madhav, the BJP general secretary in-charge of Northeast, had taken help of these Kuki organizations to win the 2017 assembly elections. The BJP came to power in Manipur for the first time in 2017 and formed a government under the leadership of Chief Minister N Biren Singh.
The letter written by the UKLF chairperson was one of the annexures attached along with an affidavit filed by SS Haokip, Chairman, United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF), one of the armed organizations under SoO in an NIA court on June 8, 2023. The UKLF chaiman is is an accused in a case related to illegal arms purchase from one former Congress MLA Yamthong Haokip. He was arrested on August 24, 2018 on charges of distributing stolen arms to Kuki groups.