New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed separate chargesheets against five accused in the disappearance of two Meitei teenagers who went missing on 6 July last year from Manipur’s Bishnupur district.
The matter came to light after a photo surfaced of the Class 11 students, both from Imphal West, being “held captive” and another purportedly showing their dead bodies. ThePrint reported earlier how families of 19-year-old Hemanjit Vietimboy and the 17-year-old girl alleged that the state police lodged FIRs at their insistence but “kept sitting” on it.
A spokesperson for the CBI said Tuesday that the agency suspects the teens were “taken to an undisclosed location” before they were “suspectedly killed”.
Asked if the agency was able to confirm their deaths, a source in the CBI told ThePrint: “The bodies could not be recovered yet and the investigation is still ongoing.”
A picture purportedly showing their bodies lying on a street surfaced on X (formerly Twitter) late September, days after internet services were restored in Manipur following ethnic clashes between the Kukis and the Meiteis that have claimed more than 180 lives since last May.
The picture, seen in conjunction with the one that showed the teens in a makeshift camp in the jungle, led to the assumption that the two might have been abducted and killed by armed Kuki groups. This triggered a spate of violent protests against the police and administration, following which the government revoked restoration of internet services.
The federal probe agency took over the case on 23 September and has chargesheeted five accused namely Nohgin Baitekuki, Paolunmang, Smalsawn Haokip, Paominlun Haokip and Lhingneichang. Four of them were arrested by the CBI on 1 October from Henglep in Churachandpur, and the fifth accused from Pune in Maharashtra on 12 October.
Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh had referred to four of the accused as the “main culprits” in the case. The CBI spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that four of the accused in the case “were arrested during the investigation are presently in judicial custody”.
Also Read: Parents of Imphal teen couple missing for weeks fear the worst — ‘just kids who went for a ride’
What CBI is saying
The CBI spokesperson also said in a statement issued Tuesday that the probe into “both inter-related cases (arising out of same facts) revealed” that on the morning of 6 July, the “boy went to the tuition class of the minor girl and picked her up on his bike and proceeded towards Bishnupur side and from there to Thas View Point area on Old Cachar Road”.
It was there that the two were “intercepted and held captive by the accused who forcibly put them in a vehicle” before taking them to an “undisclosed location”, the statement said, adding that the two were later “suspectedly killed”.
The CBI probe is based on two First Information Reports (FIRs), the first of which was filed by the father of the minor girl on 8 July at a police station in Imphal, alleging abduction of his daughter by a minor who he claimed intended to marry her without her consent. The second FIR was filed by Vietimboy’s father who approached the Lamphel police station in Imphal West on 19 July, alleging that his son had been kidnapped.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: ‘We were just students, unarmed’ — how ‘peaceful’ protest over Manipur teens’ deaths turned bloody