IMPHAL, June 2?The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs will be arriving here on June 10 to look into the prevailing law-and-order situation in the State in the wake of abduction and subsequent killing of a cloth merchant by an underground outfit. The move of the Union Home Minister?s visit to the State was relayed by the vice-president of the BJP Pyarelal Khandelwal to the State unit leaders.
The former Chief Minister and legislature wing leader of the BJP RK Dorendro while briefing the media at the MPP office said, ?The recent abduction and subsequent killing of cloth trader Manoj Kumar Sethi is very sensitive.? He also lamented Chief Minister Okram Ibobi?s inactiveness over the killing episode.
Urging the Central government to send in CBI or similar agency to investigate into the ?tragic case? which shocked the conscience of the people, he said, ?Opposition Democratic People?s Alliance wishes to verify the report that some ministers of the Ibobi ministry were always trying to intervene in the unreported or unannounced kidnapping to get some kickback out of the ransom from the victim?.
Cloth merchant Manoj Kumar Sethi was kidnapped by the proscribed KYKL on April 19 this year and found dead on May 27 in Thoubal district on charges of not paying ?tax? of Rs 1 crore.
Participating in the media briefing session, opposition firebrand and MPP president O Joy also suspected some of the ministers in the ruling front of involvement as ?middlemen? in the killing episode. Reiterating the plea of the opposition DPA which comprises MPP, BJP and FPM to send in a central agency to investigate the circumstance of the killing, Joy pointed out that ?We will disclose the identify of the minister(s) and the official concerned investigating authority under Delhi Police Establishment Act under Section 6 as there was the involvement of an official of the Government of India based at Imphal and a few ministers of the SPF ministry?.