GUWAHATI: Jailed Manipur journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem is seriously ill, according to his wife. The journalist, against whom Manipur police have slapped sedition charges, was taken to the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal on Thursday. Following a checkup, he was taken back to Sajiwa Central Jail off the Manipur capital, where he has been lodged since last November.
Wangkhem’s wife Elangbam Ranjita said that he has lost a lot of weight and that his health condition has deteriorated.
Officials in Manipur remained tightlipped with Chief Minister Biren Singh feigning ignorance about his illness. “If he is sick, he has to be taken to a hospital,” he told TNIE.
Wangkhem was arrested under Sections 294 and 500 of the IPC in addition to Section 124 A, which deals with sedition, for his criticism of the Manipur CM and the BJP-RSS and was sentenced to one year’s ‘detention’ by a local court.
He had uploaded a video on November 19 last year, in which he used expletives several times to slam BJP-RSS and the state government.
He had described the Manipur CM as a “puppet of Modi and Hindutva”. He was miffed with the state government for organising a function to mark the birth anniversary of Rani Lakshmibai. He said she had nothing to do with Manipur’s freedom movement.