Cases filed against Min Biswajit, MLA Rajen
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, April 25 2022: An election petition has been filed against Minister Thongam Biswajit, who won the seat of Thongju AC on BJP ticket, by his election rival and Congress candidate Seram Neken.

The election petition, which mentions Congress candidate Seram Neken as petitioner and Thongam Biswajit and Sanglakpam Preshyojit as respondents, was heard at the court of Manipur High Court Justice Sanjay Kumar on Monday.

According to the petition, Biswajit (respondent no 1) did not provide his full address in the affidavit submitted to the Returning Officer at the time of filing nomination paper.

Biswajit also did not mention the pending criminal cases against him as well as the State of Manipur while filling up column no 11 (2) of Part-A and Part-B under Form 26 .

The petition then urged for declaring the election won by Biswajit as null and void and declare the petitioner as the winner of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly election.

Moreover, Sanglakpam Preshyojit (Respondent no 2) cannot be declared as the winner as no third place candidate has ever been declared as the overall winner of a poll.

The petition further made a prayer for criminal proceedings to be taken up against Biswajit under Section 125-A and 127 of RP Act, 1951.After perusing the petition, the Court fixed the hearing date on May 16.On the other hand, 17-Lamsang AC National People's Party (NPP) candidate Pukhrambam Sumati has filed an election petition against ex-minister and sitting MLA Sorokhaibam Rajen.

The petition, which mentions Rajen, Likmabam Manibabu, Khundrakpam Kanba and Arambam Karamjit as respondents, was also heard at the court of Justice Sanjay Kumar on Monday.

As per the petition, Sorokhaibam Rajen (respondent no 1) submitted incorrect information about his educational qualifications in his nomination papers.

In the 9th Manipur Legislative Assembly election, he submitted that he passed his BA from Manipur University (MU) in 1985, but during the 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly election and 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly election, the said respondent submitted his affidavit specifying that he graduated from MU with a BA degree in 1992 .

However, in the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly election, he submitted that he passed his BA from MU in 1988.Additionally, respondent no 1 submitted an affidavit in the 9th Manipur Legislative Assembly election held in 2017 informing he was 43 years old.

However, in the 10th Assembly election held in 2012, he mentioned that he was 53 years old in the affidavit.

In the 11th Assembly election, however, he specified his age to be 52 years old, while in the recently held 12th Assembly election, he submitted an affidavit stating that he is 57 years old.

The petition continued that on the day of scrutiny for the 12th Assembly election, respondent no 1 failed to provide any documents supporting his claims of his ages and passing BA degree from MU, in front of the authority concerned.

The document he produced was of a diploma passed by him in 1988.The document, however, was not in the format generally issued by MU and it lacks the signature of the authority concerned.

Sorokhaibam Rajen mentioned in his affidavit that a total of Rs 42,35,095.23 Was there in his wife's bank account.

But he did not provide a valid reason on why there was so much money in his wife's savings account, when she is only a manager of a brick field.

The respondent stated that the money was the compensation money for a land, but did not provide any supporting documents.

He also did not mention in his affidavit of a brickfield in his name, M/S SR Construction Material located in Tharoijam Maning Leikai.

The petition then urged for declaring the electoral victory of Sorokhaibam Rajen from 17-Lamsang AC in the 12th Assembly election as null and void and to disqualify him from representing the constituency.

It also made a prayer for declaring the petitioner as the winner of the election.

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