GUWAHATI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday arrested four persons, including two women, from Churachandpur in Manipur in connection with the abduction and killing of two Meitei students. “I’m pleased to share that some of the main culprits responsible for the abduction and murder of Phijam Hemanjit and Hijam Linthoingambi have been arrested from Churachandpur today,”
Chief Minister N Biren Singh posted on the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter). “As the saying goes, one may abscond after committing the crime, but they cannot escape the long hands of the law,” Singh added. He said the government was committed to ensuring maximum punishment, including capital punishment, to the culprits for the heinous crime they had committed.
It was learnt that the CBI team, assisted by the Manipur police and Army, intercepted a Bolero in which the four accused were travelling at the Henglep subdivision around noon. Two minor girls aged 9 and 11 — daughters of one of the accused women — were also in the vehicle.
Subsequently, all six were taken to Imphal airport in an Army helicopter. Around 5 pm, they were flown out of the state to Assam's capital Guwahati, in a routine commercial flight. The arrested accused will be produced before the Competent Court at Guwahati designated as per the orders of the Supreme Court, the CBI said in a statement. It added that the two minor children have been handed over to the District Child Protection Officer, Kamrup Metro District for their welfare and protection.
Sources said the CBI was tracking the phone of one of the slain students, and found that it was being used by the accused. Hemanjit (20) and Linthoingambi (17) went missing in July when the ethnic violence in Manipur was at its peak. Photos showing their bodies surfaced on social media recently, days after internet services were restored in the state after a four-month blackout.
More than 180 people lost their lives and several hundred were injured since the ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3, after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.
Meiteis account for about 53 per cent of Manipur's population and live mostly in the Imphal Valley.
Tribals -- Nagas and Kukis -- constitute little over 40 per cent and reside in the hill districts.
Kukis protest against arrest
Civil society organisations in Kuki-majority Churachandpur on Sunday declared an indefinite shutdown in the district from Monday morning in protest against the ‘abduction’ of six Kuki-Zo tribals