Time and again we have witnessed our respective governments failing in their responsibility to address the citizen’s concerns by just simply suppressing any voice of dissent, MSAD said.
TFM Desk
Manipur Students’ Association Delhi (MSAD) strongly condemned the arrest of Sintha Laishram allegedly without any arrest memo for organising a peaceful protest. The student body also appealed for the immediate release of Sintha who is at present detained in the police lock up in Thoubal Police Station.
MSAD in a release on Saturday also condemned the act of the officer in-charge of Thoubal PS for not allowing any meeting with him by his family members and the concerned people.
Out of several arbitrary arrests of many citizens and journalists for simply voicing against the authority, one of the most recent ones was the arrest of Coalition Against Drugs and Alcohol (CADA) Thoubal District Committee general secretary Sintha Laishram for allegedly organising a peaceful protest against the acquittal of former Autonomous District Council (ADC) Chandel chairman Lukhosei Zou, it stated.
Lukhosei Zou along with seven others were earlier apprehended with drugs worth several cores of rupees from his official residence. Later in a “very suspicious process” of jurisdiction his driver and a 19 year old boy were found guilty in that multi-crore scandal, the release added.
MSAD further said that after the acquittal of Lukhosei Zou, many right thinking civil society and students bodies denounced the judgement of the special court. Many CSOs including CADA have been demanding for re-investigation and re-trial of this “infamous” multi-crore drug haul case. In regard to that the High Court of Manipur has also directed the Government of Manipur to file a counter affidavit against a prayer seeking an appeal by 3.5 collective (a civil society coalition) against the acquittal of Lhukhosei Zou, it added.
MSAD opined that in a democratic country, protest is the right of every citizen to display their dissatisfaction. But time and again we have witnessed our respective governments failing in their responsibility to address the citizen’s concerns by just simply suppressing any voice of dissent, it added.