GUWAHATI: A Supreme Court lawyer who is assisting the family of a 2011 Manipur road rage murder victim has alleged he was “threatened” by militants to stay away from the case.
Advocate Utsav Singh Bains brought the alleged life threat to the notice of the MHA through a letter.
He claimed he had informed the SP (CID) Manipur in March of the threatening calls he received from a person.
But the SP (CID) said they had not received any complaint from the advocate. “I have been serving in the position since December last year. Neither my colleagues nor I received any complaint,” the SP (CID) said.
When asked, advocate Bains, who was in Manipur on Wednesday in connection with the case, refused to comment saying the matter is sub-judice.
The victim, Irom Roger, was shot dead on March 20, 2011 on the outskirts of Imphal following a scuffle on the road.
An accused in the case, Nongthombam Ajay, who is the son of incumbent chief minister N Biren Singh, was earlier convicted by a local court. In January this year, the court sentenced him to five years imprisonment.
Bains wrote that he was engaged as a lawyer by the victim’s family to file an appeal in the Manipur High Court and a petition in the Supreme Court against the accused and had visited Imphal from March 17 to 19.
“Following my return, I received calls on my WhatsApp numbers on March 22 at around 3:30 AM. The person, who spoke in broken English with a Manipuri accent, said he was calling from PLA and NSCIM and that I shouldn’t go ahead with the case. Later, I informed the superintendent of police (CID) Imphal, of the threatening calls,” Bains had written in the letter, a copy of which is available with The New Indian Express.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is an insurgent outfit while NSCIM is believed to be a Naga insurgent group.