Manipur journalist behind bars for the last 43 days

Kishorechandra Wangkhem was arrested for a post on Facebook
Representational Image

Representational Image

Imphal: When the entire country is busy with the justice for Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, there lies another journalist who has been staying behind the bars for the last 43 days. Manipur journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem has been spending his days in the prison for a Facebook post.

Last year, he was arrested for 133 days for another Facebook post. This time, his wife who is single-handedly looking after their two-month-old child is not sure how long the wait will be this time.

It all started with a post by a woman allegedly involved with a state minister about his wife, a woman from a minority tribal community, Maram. Referring to the post, Wangkhem wrote about the political implications of the statement for the minister. His post went viral, and he was soon arrested by the police.

The Superintendent of Police of Senapati district, Pradip Singh said that the Maram Women's Union complained that the post of the journalist was derogatory to the tribal community. The union also issued a press notice that the government must take action, failing which all forms of protests would be launched.

Singh said that government has to take action when a pressure group says something. Senapati is a volatile district, and it is dominated with Naga tribal population.

Elangbam Ranjita, wife of Wangkhem said that he was first arrested on September 9-10, but he got anticipatory bail. However, his bail was cancelled on September 29 and was taken back to jail.

The journalist was charged with sedition, promoting enmity between different groups and intent to incite a community to commit an offence against another, and under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

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