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

Imphal: The Manipur High Court has ordered 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 Kabui on Tuesday suggested that a committee comprising of the District Magistrate, Kangpokpi district, Superintendent of Police, Kangpokpi, Superintendent of Police, Imphal West and Commanding officer of the 57 Mountain Division be set up and the committee will submit a detailed report before the court on the next hearing scheduled for December 11.

The District Magistrate shall head the committee which will conduct an enquiry regarding the missing of the said person and whether the said person has been abducted in the said camp or fled on his own, it said.

The court also said 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 for appearing before the Committee for enquiry.

Laishram Kamalbabu Singh, a native of Assam's Cachar district who lived in Khukrul in Imphal West, and was a works supervisor for a contractor working with the Military Engineering Services (MES) in Leimakhong Military Station of the 57th Mountain Division 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 Kamalbabu had been kidnapped by militants from the high-security zone.