Securitymen torture Kuki farmer to death

IMPHAL, March 15: In yet another suspected custodial death case, a 25-year-old Kuki farmer, son of a village chief in Sadar Hills, Senapati district was allegedly tortured to death by the security force personnel after being picked up along with another youth, from the Keithelmanbi area in the district recently. The deceased has been identified as Pouminlun Lhouvum, son of Seikholen, chief of Heibung village in Senapati district. The suspected custodial death case came to light when the Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC) took up the case following a complaint lodged by the deceased's father on March 10. Talking to The Assam Tribune, father of deceased Seikhlen Lhouvum said that his son Pouminlun was picked up by a team of security forces suspected to be Assam Rifles personnel who came in civil dress along with one youth Thonglal Kipgen around 10 am of February 25 last. Since then, whereabouts of the deceased had remained unknown. Seikholen also lodged a complaint to the Additional SP of Kangpokpi police station on March 1 through ADC Kangpokpi to trace out the whereabouts of his son. A police team of Imphal east district recovered a decomposed dead body from the foothill of Nongmaiching,Tinsid road on March 6 and registered a case under Section 302/34 Indian family members only after the post mortem was over, at RIMS morgue. The family members also claimed that Pouminlun was tortured to death by the security force personnel in their custody. As a result, the father of the deceased filed a written complaint to the MHRC. In view of the development, the MHRC has directed the Director General of Police, Manipur DS Grewal not to dispose off the body but to re-examine the post mortem with video recording. Commission also asked the DGP Manipur to submit a compliance report of the case within 24 hours. As per the directive of the Commission, post mortem on the decomposed body of Pouminlun was conducted by Nabachandra of RIMS on March 14 with video recording in presence of petitioner's counsel Gauhati High Court advocates P Tomcha, P Kiranmala and relatives of the deceased. In the meantime, the DGP Manipur has submitted a preliminary report to the Commission, a reliable source said here today. It is learnt that Pouminlun Lhouvum is newly married man and was the father of a daughter. At the same time, the Manipur Human Rights Commission has referred the case to National Human Rights Commission along with the proceedings of the case, the sources said.