Manipur High Court orders setting up of 4 member committee to submit report on missing man

PTI, IMPHAL, DEC 4, 2024 :  The Manipur High Court has ordered the setting up of a four-member committee to submit a detailed report on the disappearance of a 56-year-old man who went missing from an army camp at Leimakhong in Kangpokpi district on November 25.

A division bench of Chief Justice D. Krishnakumar and Justice Golmei Gaiphulsillu Kabu on Tuesday suggested that a committee comprising the District Magistrate of Kangpokpi, the Superintendent of Police (Kangpokpi), the Superintendent of Police (Imphal West), and the Commanding Officer of the 57 Mountain Division be set up. The committee will submit a detailed report before the court at the next hearing scheduled for December 11.

The District Magistrate shall head the committee, which will conduct an inquiry regarding the missing person and determine whether he was abducted at the camp or fled on his own, the court said. The court also directed that "the petitioner's family shall cooperate with the committee for producing any materials or records which are available to them," and that the head of the committee shall serve notice to the petitioner's family members to appear before the committee for the inquiry.

Laishram Kamalbabu Singh, a native of Assam's Cachar district who lived in Khukrul in Imphal West, was a works supervisor for a contractor working with the Military Engineering Services (MES) at the Leimakhong Military Station of the 57th Mountain Division. He went missing from the army camp on November 25. Singh's younger brother, Laishram Brajabanshi Singh, had filed a writ petition at the high court on November 27, claiming that Kamalbabu had been kidnapped by militants from the high-security zone.