Imphal, Feb. 3: Manipur?s Opposition combine, the Democratic People?s Alliance (DPA), today appealed to the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) to substantiate its charges against the Speaker and two cabinet ministers in the sensational Elizabeth murder case.
The NSCN (I-M) had accused the leaders of having a hand in the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Lungnila Elizabeth, eight-year-old daughter of taxation minister Francis Ngajokpa.
Addressing a news conference, DPA spokesman Okram Joy Singh demanded that the NSCN (I-M) should prove the charges levelled against the Speaker and the cabinet ministers. The outfit had earlier promised to do so.
Last month, the NSCN (I-M) alleged that Speaker T.N. Haokip, tribal development minister Ngamthang Haokip and works minister Gaikhangam were part of the conspiracy involved in Elizabeth?s murder. The schoolgirl was found dead a few days after she was taken hostage by unidentified persons in November last year.
The NSCN (I-M)?s charges against the three politicians arose from the interrogation of a prime murder suspect, identified as James Kuki alias Ngamsei Haokip. He was picked up by militants of the Naga outfit from Dimapur?s Burma Camp area along with his wife last month.
James allegedly told NSCN (I-M) interrogators that immediately after the murder he met all the three leaders, who sent him away after paying him money to keep his mouth shut.
James fled Imphal?s Langol housing complex after a banned outfit of Manipur, the United National Liberation Front (UNLF), named him the mastermind behind the kidnapping and murder.
?If the NSCN (I-M) can prove the charges before the Manipur Assembly session begins, the people of Manipur would be happy,? Joy Singh said today.
The DPA, comprising the BJP, the Federal Party of Manipur, the Manipur People?s Party, the Manipur National Conference and the Manipur State Congress Party, has decided to boycott the two-day state Assembly session, scheduled to start on February 6.
Joy Singh said the Opposition could not participate in a House session over which a ?tainted Speaker? would preside.
The spokesman, however, said the DPA would participate in the session if the House took up the no-confidence notice served by it against the Speaker on five specific charges.