New Delhi: Manipur Police is suspecting an assassination plot against R.K. Meghen, the chairman of the banned outfit United National Liberation Front (UNLF), state police have confirmed.
Meghen, 74, has been residing with his immediate and extended family at his ancestral house in Manipur’s Imphal West district after he was freed from the Guwahati Central Jail in November 2019.
A Meitei ideologue, better known in the state as Sanayaima or ‘son of the soil’, Meghen had returned home in 2019 after 44 years. In 2010, he was reportedly arrested at Motihari in Bihar by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on the charge of waging war against the country. However, Meghen had claimed that he was taken into custody by Bangladesh authorities in September that year on the advice of the Indian government and was handed over to the security agencies.
Confirming the news about the assassination plot to The Wire on February 10, Imphal West District superintendent of police, K. Meghachandra Singh said, “We have some confidential input (about it) but I don’t want to share much.”
The senior police official said, “We are taking some security measures on the periphery of the house, not very special (arrangement) but yes, certain police presence is there.”
However, sources in Meghen’s family have told The Wire there has been heavy police presence, not just along the periphery and the road leading to the residence, but till their outer gate too, since February 8.
Also read: Manipur’s Rebel Leader R.K. Meghen Arrives in Imphal After a Gap of 44 Years
“A top police official visited him that day to inform about the assassination plot and told him to restrict his movement. Another team had come before him but he (Meghen) was out of the house at that time. Strangely, we were also told by some policemen on February 9 that our house might also be raided because of the plot, which has left us confused as to who are they suspecting of it,” said a family member who asked not to be identified here.
“Also, strangely, all the cars going out of the house are being checked, but not those which are coming in, leaving us again very confused as to what is going on. Nothing much has been divulged to us,” he said.
Asked as to who could be behind the plot and if anyone has been suspected of it, the Imphal West superintendent of police said, “Certain things are there but not directly related to the case.”
Imphal-based rights activist and Human Rights Alert executive director, Babloo Loitongbam, who visited Meghen’s residence on February 10 morning on hearing the news, told this correspondent that the police noted down his car number on his way to the house but his car was not checked. He could see “substantial police presence with armoured vehicles parked nearby”.
“Since he (Meghen) stays in a joint family with different houses in the same compound, there are about 70 people whose movement has been severely restricted by this police cordon,” he stated.
Meanwhile, there is also an unconfirmed report about five policemen suspended on February 8 for failing to track Meghen’s movements. However, the Imphal West SP categorically denied the report to The Wire, “No, there is no connection between this case and the suspension of the policemen. That was for dereliction of general duty.”
After his release from Guwahati jail on November 9, 2019, the NIA had not allowed Meghen to return to Manipur and was instead flown to a safe house in Delhi. He, was, however, allowed to fly to Imphal on November 28 that year. Since then, not much has been heard about the rebel leader till the news of the assassination plot broke this February 8.