Nepalis protest in Manipur - Community demands justice for murdered 16-year-old girl

TT, Imphal, May 21: The Nepali community in Manipur is not going to rest till justice is done to the alleged murder of a 16-year-old girl belonging to the community by her alleged lover some days back. A joint action committee formed by the community today organised a peaceful student protest march from Kanglatongbi to Motbung in Sadar Hills of Senapati district with the warning that they might turn violent if justice was not done in the girl’s case. Police recovered the body of Pushpa Basnet of Kanglatongbi Tispari on the night of May 17 from a foothill at Awang Leikinthabi under Sekmai police station of Imphal West. She had left home in the morning the same day saying she was going to Presidency College to collect the form for admission into Class XII. The post-mortem report said the girl had died of poisoning. 

The police also recovered a car from the spot and the suspected killer, Khumanthem Ingo, 26, from Maharabi in Imphal West was arrested and is being questioned. Ingo has claimed that he had a relationship with Pushpa and the two had decided to commit suicide by consuming poison but the community has refused to accept the story and charged Ingo with murdering Pushpa. The Nepali population in Manipur is about 50,000, with about 15,000 concentrated in the Kanglatongbi and Motbung neighbourhoods. The community is outraged by repeated attacks on the community’s young girls by culprits belonging to other communities. Kharga Tamang, secretary of the joint action committee, said four girls, including Pushpa, were attacked and sexually assaulted in the past few years. While three of them were murdered after being allegedly raped, another girl lost an eye permanently after she was attacked for resisting rape. 

Tamang said barring the Pushpa case, no one had been arrested in the earlier three cases. Pushpa’s death was the last straw for the residents of Kanglatongbi, who suspect that two other accomplices of Ingo were also involved in the crime. After blocking the Imphal-Dimapur highway at Kanglatongbi and Motbung areas for two days on March 18 and 19, students today marched from Kanglatongbi to Presidency College at Motbung, about 2km from Kanglatongbi, braving the scorching heat. While the students were marching shouting slogans, a group of women belonging to all communities staged a sit-in at Kanglatongbi bazar, demanding speedy justice. The joint action committee is demanding a copy of the post-mortem report and arrest of all those involved in the case. “We will continue our agitation. Today’s protest was peaceful. We may turn violent and block the highway again,” the president of the joint action committee said.