Drug seizure case from Lhukhosei Zou irks senior State BJP leaders
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 20 2020: Some senior BJP leaders have been perturbed by the silence of BJP Manipur Pradesh over the seizure of drugs worth several crores of rupees and a huge amount of cash from former Chandel ADC Chairman Lhukhosei Zou.

Some senior leaders of the party have stated that BJP should not take the issue of Lhukhosei Zou lightly as there have been allegations of involvement of Chief Minister N Biren and a vice-president of the party in working behind the scene to let off the drug kingpin.

If the party's leadership choose to remain silent on such a sensitive matter, it would have serious repercussions on both the Government and the party.

It would be wise to discuss the matter by convening a meeting of the party's core committee and office bearers, said the senior leaders.

Drug seizure case from Lhukhosei Zou irks senior State BJP leaders

It was during the Congress Government that Lhukhosei Zou was elected as the Chandel ADC Chairman.

Lhukhosei Zou and all the elected Members of Chandel ADC joined BJP only after the BJP-led Government was formed in the State.

In order to save BJP's reputation and taking into account the next State Assembly election which is not very far off, the party president should convene a meeting and discuss the issue, said the senior leaders.

The party president should serve notice on all those people who are alleged to be involved in the drug case and make every effort to find out the facts, they said.

Asserting that maintaining silence over the issue would not serve any purpose, the senior leaders said that the party ought to advise the Government to hand over the case to the CBI to find out who are the culprits and who are innocent.

Saying that they are suspicious if the former Chandel ADC Chairman and his team joined BJP with a malicious intention to tarnish the image of BJP beyond repair, the senior leaders asserted that the party's leadership must not remain silent when MLAs elected on BJP tickets start acting on their own whims and fancies without any respect for the party's ideology.

BJP Manipur Pradesh president should take up some concrete actions so that the high profile drug seizure case which has now become the biggest issue in the State can be discussed threadbare at a meeting of the party so as to safeguard the party's image and prestige, the senior leaders added.

Notably, a team of the Narcotics and Affairs of Border (NAB), led by Additional SP Th Brinda arrested Lhukhosei Zou along with seven others and seized 4.595 kg of heroin, 2,80,200 WY (World is Yours) tablets, Rs 57.18 lakh in cash, another Rs 95,000 in demonetised currency notes, and several other incriminating articles June 20, 2018 .

A charge sheet was filed against Lhukhosei Zou on December 15, 2018 .

However, four days later, he was released on interim bail by the Special Court (ND & PS) on health grounds.

However, when Lhukhosei was supposed to appear before the Court on January 9, 2019, he was nowhere to be found.

He was soon declared an absconder.

In February though, he reappeared and surrendered at the special Court (ND & PS) hearing the case.

He claimed that he was abducted by armed group KNA Eastern Zalengam (Burma) on January 5, 2019 and had since been detained in Myanmar.

Justice A Noutuneshwar Devi of the special Court, on May 21 this year, granted him bail again for three weeks on health grounds.

On May 23, Brinda posted a comment on her personal Facebook account following the release of drug lord Letkhosei Zou on bail.

After the High Court of Manipur took cognisance of her social media post, she was summoned on June 10 apart from registering a contempt of Court case.

Responding to the High Court's summon, Brinda submitted an affidavit on July 13 which accused Chief Minister N Biren of exerting pressure upon her to let off Lhukhosei Zou.

According to the affidavit, one vice-president of BJP Manipur Pradesh, Chief Minister N Biren and a woman named Olish and some high ranking police officers have been working actively to let off Lhukhosei Zou.