Manipur Police submitted three Chargesheets on Tuesday against political activist Leichombam Erendro for posting statements promoting hatred between Meiteis and non-locals.
The chargesheet has been filed in three of the cases that are (1) "The cure for Corona is not cow dung & cow urine. The cure is Science & Common sense. Professor ji RIP." (2) A complaint lodged by Ruby Srivastava, COO & Director, Anuna Education Network Pvt. Ltd. Erendro was the infrastructure service provider of this NGO for the Imphal chapter. He misappropriated the funds of the NGO. (3) 5 unknown Biharis(out of which one was arrested from Patna) uploaded one video clip against the Meitei community, threatening the Meiteis. It became viral. He uploaded a statement promoting Meiteis and non-locals. Altogether 9 accused persons along with Erendro were arrested.
Last month, following the Court's intervention, the Manipur government revoked the NSA order against Erendro after he was released from the Manipur Central Jail.
Erendro was arrested on 13 May for a post on Facebook that said “cow dung or cow urine will not cure covid”. This was the fifth and latest case against him, after which the NSA was imposed.
However, the other cases — first registered in 2018, second in 2019, third in 2020 and the fourth in February this year — are still under probe, and therefore there are no charge sheets filed yet.
The plea sought to set aside the NSA detention order, and also compensation for Erendro for the alleged “illegal detention”.
The documents revealed that the operative portion of the detention order under NSA, issued by the Imphal district magistrate, was word-to-word copy of a paragraph from a rejected police remand application that was filed before a trial court in Imphal to oppose Erendro’s bail plea in the fifth case.
The trial court had turned down the police’s plea to remand Enrendro in judicial custody on 17 May and had ordered his release. However, despite being on bail in the other four cases, Erendro continued to be in jail as the NSA detention order was issued against him on 17 May itself.