Nothing less than a smoke screen : Convincingly unconvincing
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 18, 2012 -

The merry go round exercise has to stop. It is not a game, but about the death of a promising young man. This is one point that needs to be rung out loud and clear.

From the April 15 or 16 bike accident alibi to the canards of drug abuse, temperamental in nature utterings and now to some heart ailment, which may be hereditary, it is more or less clear that there are some powerful elements out there in Bangalore who are hell bent on reducing the death of Loitam Richard to a circus and this, we will not tolerate.

The cover up attempts are too blatant. Using medical jargons may confuse and confound for some time, but the point that this cannot be an effective smoke screen should be grilled into the heads of all those involved in the case.

Attributing the death of the young student to a heart ailment, having nothing to do with the physical injuries which were inflicted upon him so brutally, amounts to completely absolving the hostelmates who assaulted him.

We are no medical experts, but what we do know is that heart ailment can be aggravated by assaults, and that too severe assaults, as evidenced by the preliminary post mortem report which pointed out so many external body injuries.

Can't a heart ailment be aggravated by extreme physical assault ?

Why the haste on the part of Bangalore Rural Police in stating that the death had nothing to do with physical injuries that were inflicted on the young student ?

Doesn't this amount to absolving the hostelmates who assaulted the late student ? Something is definitely fishy here.

As a policy The Sangai Express does not believe in trial by the media but if this commentary comes anywhere near this, we will not apologise for the simple fact stands that the death of Loitam Richard cannot be seen in isolation of the clearly visible external injuries on his body, as stated in the preliminary post mortem report.

No, we can no longer trust the local police there to unearth the truth and at the risk of repeating ourselves, let an independent body, say the CBI, investigate the case.

Repeat the post mortem examination at a Forensic Science Laboratory located outside the jurisdiction of the Government of Karnataka. There must be enough FSLs in the country equipped to conduct the test.

The duty of the State Government must extend beyond merely running the affairs of the State but also sincerely taking a keen concern for the welfare of its people who are settled or studying in different parts of the country and even abroad. This is where the weakness of the Ibobi Singh led Government lies exposed like an ugly sore.

So far the Chief Minister has not come out with an official statement on the matter. No we are not saying that he should pass judgements, but as the leader of the people we expect him to come out and say that the State Government will take up all necessary measures to to ensure that the Government of Karnataka take the case to its logical conclusion.

Even the written intimation sent by the State Home Minister Gaikhangam to his Karnataka counter part was treated like it was a classified information, which could pose a danger to the security and stability of the State or the country.

A reflection of a weak, whimpering political class, unable to take up cudgels on behalf of the people they represent.

An official team of the State police was sent only after the gory details of the death started to tumble out and people from the North East and elsewhere started coming out on the streets to demand justice, thanks to the mobilisation drive launched by the group formed to demand justice for Loitam Richard on the social networking site, Facebook.

In short, whatever efforts that have been taken up have come from the general public, the students and professionals from the region settled outside the State and not from the State Government. This is what sucks.

The injuries that were detected on the body of the late student were gruesome to say the least and non-chalantly dismissing the injuries from the cause of the death is nothing but a desperate attempt at shielding some people.

No one will buy this line of explanation and Bangalore Rural Police as well as the authorities of the Architecture institution where Richard studied should get this into their heads.