Residences of Two Meitei Lawyers Who Represented a Kuki Professor Vandalised

New Delhi: The residences and chambers of two Meitei lawyers in Imphal were vandalised on Friday, September 1, by an unidentified mob as retaliation for representing a Kuki professor from Hyderabad in court.

According to Hindustan Times, the two lawyers, Soraisham Chittaranjan and Victor Chongtham, and two others had withdrawn from the case on Thursday (August 31), citing “personal difficulties”.

They were representing professor Kham Khan Suan Hausing, who teaches at the Hyderabad University.

“On Friday, around 2.15pm, a large mob came to my residence at Singjamei Chingamakha Maibam Leirak locality in Imphal West district and started damaging the house and my chamber,” Chittranjan told the newspaper. “The entire house and its contents were damaged.”

A case has been registered against the attackers under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, and investigation is underway.

The first information report (FIR) said that around 300 people stormed the house of the lawyer “as news spread that he (Chittaranjan)” was the counsel “of a Kuki community case in Manipur high court in connection with ongoing communal clashes between Meitei and Kuki community”.

“The mob became tense and violent and destroyed his house occupied along with his brothers S Jiteshwor and S Manoranjan...as a result of which most of the house and household items were totally damaged, but luckily (there was) no casualty,” said the police report, which HT has seen.

Police told the daily that the FIR has been lodged under Sections 147, 149, 448, 445 and 427 of Indian Penal Code for rioting, unlawful assembly, house trespass and causing loss and damage to property.

The attacks came after ethnic clashes between Meitei and Kuki communities in Manipur, which claimed over 163 lives and displaced around 50,000. Fresh violence that erupted on August 29 and persisted for three days resulted in the loss of eight lives and left nearly 20 individuals injured, the report added.

The case against Hausing was lodged by an Imphal East resident, Moirangthem Manihar Singh, in July after he spoke the current situation in Manipur, in an interview to journalist Karan Thapar, for The Wire.

In his complaint, Singh alleged the Hausing made derogatory statements about a holy religious site associated with the Meitei community and defamed the community, increasing “communal enmity” at a time when Manipur is witnessing ethnic clashes.

According to HT, an order issued on July 6 said there was prima facie materials for offences against Hausing under sections of the IPC, including promoting enmity between different groups (153A), using as true a declaration knowing it to be false (200), deliberate act to outrage religious feelings (295A) and criminal conspiracy (120B). It asked him to appear in court on July 28.

Hausing is facing another case in Imphal West, where a complainant has accused him of not being an Indian citizen and alleged he had forged his documents to procure identity papers. The court has asked police to prove the accusation.

Hausing had approached the Supreme Court seeking relief in both cases.

On August 14, the Supreme Court granted him protection from any coercive action for two weeks. It also asked him to approach the Manipur high court for relief.

Hausing filed his petition in the Manipur high court after that.

“The charge questioning my nationality is a flimsy one filed out of ignorance and spite. I am an Indian citizen by birth and all my documents say so,” Hausing tsaid, per HT. “In connection with the other case, we are planning to approach the Supreme Court and get the matter transferred out of Manipur.”

The case will be heard next on September 4.

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