Normal life was totally paralyzed on Friday with all forms of public transport staying off the road and business establishment downing their shutters as JAC supporters throughout the Manipur valley responded to the state wide strike and enforced the shutdown at several places. Even attendances at government offices were extremely low. All these clearly indicate the state is bounding back to trouble times.
Sunzu Bachaspatimayum
Even as the Manipur Chief minister takes pride in the rhetoric of saying ‘strikes and highway blockades have become a thing of the past with the dethroning of the Congress by the BJP led coalition’ – since the sensational case of the death of a 14-year old girl student who was found hanging on her bunker bed of her school’s dormitory, the state is gripped in public outrage, threatening to make the newly found ‘peace’ short lived.
Since July 18, the fateful day on which the school authority informed the unfortunate parent that they found their ward hung herself to death in her hostel dormitory, the state has been gripped in some form of protest or the other.
The high handed attitude of the school authority in dealing with the emotive issue made the parents of the deceased student of class VII suspect foul play.
Parents questioned why the school authority chose to inform the private school association before they were actually informed. Apparently when the parents of the deceased student arrived at the school, representatives of the Association were already there. Another shocking incident was the police preventing the press as well as the parents of the deceased from entering the scene of the alleged suicide. Even the double-decker bed from which the girl student allegedly hung herself to death, raised a lot of questions as the height of the bed was same as that of the girl who was found hung to death. Another doubt is how come none of the 36 girl students who shared the dormitory, heard or got even a slightest hint of what was allegedly happening inside their dormitory while they were sleeping.
A people’s action group – Joint Action Committee Against the Mysterious Death of the Girl, JAC, – was formed to seek the truth into the case and demand appropriate justice to those found guilty. The JAC started initiating a series of protest to pressurize the administration to act justly and swiftly.
The JAC alleges that the state police is titling in favour of the school. Pheiroijam Landhoni Devi, the founder and the principal of the Standard Robarth Higher Secondary School is well known and extremely influential person who can probably hush up the case.
Police has somewhat redeemed itself when the SIT (special investigation team of the police) headed by an IGP took custody of Landhoni along with her son and daughter as part of the investigation into case. The founder-principal’s son Ph. Robinson was the junior administrator of the school while Ph. Romita, the daughter, was the coordinator.
Even though the mood of the public was tense, the speedy direction of the investigation by the SIT calmed the nerves of the JAC which included powerful student bodies like All Manipur Student’s Union and others. This prevented the JAC from launching paralyzing shutdown strikes and violent agitations. However the second post-mortem report which is similar to the first report which, in plain words, said that the cause of death was ‘due to asphyxiation caused by hanging’ indicating possible suicide. The matter was communicated to the parents and the JAC by the Chief Minister himself in a meeting with the concerned investigating officers. However the JAC refused to accept the post mortem report saying it is doctored.
To voice their anguish at how the investigation is panning out, the JAC has imposed a state wide 24-hour shutdown strike on 9thAugust. Prior on Thursday, residents of the deceased girl’s locality burnt the chief minister’s effigy during a local shutdown strike called by the JAC. At six student protestors from CC Higher Secondary School and Model Higher Secondary School, were injured in police action while demanding justice in the case.
Normal life was totally paralyzed on Friday with all forms of public transport staying off the road and business establishment downing their shutters as JAC supporters throughout the Manipur valley responded to the state wide strike and enforced the shutdown at several places. Even attendances at government offices were extremely low. All these clearly indicate the state is bounding back to trouble times.
