Of Lungnila, Muheni and Hrinii : Unanswered questions
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 05 2015 -
November 4, 2003. November 12, the same year.
The first is the date she was kidnapped from near her school, Little Flower School, and the latter date was when her lifeless body was found inside a gunny bag from a ditch at Tera Sadokpam.
Lungnila Elizabeth is no more, but her story will continue to haunt the collective psyche of the people here.
12 years is a pretty long time, but there are instances which will not fade from public memory and certainly the memory of Lungnila Elizabeth will come back every year.
Rewind to 12 years and those engaged in the profession of disseminating information to the people will recall the moment the story of the kidnapping trickled into the offices of the newspapers here.
Memories of the next few days, that is between the night of November 4 and November 12 must still be fresh in the minds of the people, who had the opportunity to view the unfolding development from a range closer than the common people.
The Sangai Express had commented on the manner in which the State Government responded to the situation while trying to trace the whereabouts of the child.
For reasons which have not been spelt out till date, no hotlines were issued for the public to give any information.
This was something which The Sangai Express had critiqued extensively.
It was after more than seven days that the mortal remains of the missing child was found, prompting the Government to declare curfew to thwart any untoward incident.
The manhunt launched back then, with the Government still in the dark about the identity of the person/s behind the grisly murder grabbed prime space in all the newspapers published in Imphal.
Twelve years down the line and has the picture become any clearer ?
Difficult to say after two suspects were reportedly hauled up by the law enforcing agencies years after the kidnapping and murder.
Also remember it was not the Government agencies which first ‘arrested’ the two suspects in the case but armed organisations.
Even today it is not clear what the motives were.
Was it only for money that Elizabeth was done to death ?
Or is it a case of the investigation running into a wall ?
Remember the great chase launched along National Highway 2 by womenfolk when news did the round that one of the suspects had taken flight ?
These are all questions at the moment but extremely relevant.
Moreover has any lesson been learnt from the grisly murder of the school going child ?
This question gains credence in the face of the fact that four years later, that is on March 27, 2007, two school kids of Senapati went missing and their lifeless bodies were found only on April 2.
Here again it was not the State Government which took the lead in investigating the case but an armed outfit.
Muheni Martin and Hrinii Hubert are no more, but the dastardly murder of these two school kids will not fade from public memory.
Shame it is that even after 8 years, there is nothing much to suggest that the Government is anywhere near cracking the case.
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