Yambem Laba refuses apology
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, October 06 2014: Reacting to a legal notice served against him in connection with a news item on RIMS published in The Statesman on September 22 last, the Imphal correspondent of the Kolkata-based newspaper Yambem Laba has taken a firm stand on the issue stating that there is no question of forwarding any apology from his side and announced his willingness to face all civil or criminal cases brought up against him with full might.

The legal notice was reportedly served following the litigation initiated by the chief of the BJP, Manipur Pradesh, Thounaojam Chaoba who had demanded a compensation of Rs 50 crores from Laba on the ground that the content of the article was defamatory.

Yambem Laba refuses apology

Speaking to pressmen today, Yambem Laba provided the information that he had sent his reply in connection with the legal notice served by Chaoba's legal representative through Supriya Ranjan, an advocate of Kolkata High Court, who is representing The Statesman.

The former member of the Manipur Human Rights Commission who has now returned to active journalism clarified that he do not have any personal grudge or animosity towards Chaoba and wrote the news item fulfilling his obligations as a journalist.

He further clarified that he has no specific knowledge of the relationship between the BJP leader and Damayanti, wife of former director of RIMS Sekharjit, or any financial transaction happening between them.

Laba went on to raise his suspicion that Chaoba misappropriated party's fund and provided his claims as evidences to support his charge based on the estimation prepared by the state BJP for Narendra Modi rally at Imphal during the poll campaign for the parliamentary elections.

He explained that in connection with the rally, a sum of Rs two lakhs was sanctioned for cleaning up the venue which was a football ground, Rs 10 lakhs for stage decoration, Rs two lakhs for building a helipad, Rs 50 thousands for arrangement of drinking water, Rs 60 lakhs towards renting 50,000 chairs, carpets and mats, Rs 16.5 lakhs for construction of the main gate at the venue, Rs 18 thousands for hiring two Tata Safari for transportation of the VIPs, Rs 21.90 lakhs on other transportation and Rs 2.80 lakhs for preparation of a 90 minutes video on the rally.

The rally reportedly incurred a total deficit of Rs 25 lakhs and the national general secretary of BJP (organisation) was sent a correspondence by the state BJP chief to sanction the amount with promptness.

There is vagueness whether the amount had been sanctioned to the state unit or not, Laba stated.

However, he asserted confidently that the figures quoted in the estimate could not be correct.

The amount sought for cleaning up the ground and construction of helipad were inflated, those for arrangement of drinking water was unreasonable as no one was provided with water, the main gate was constructed with money taken from the pockets of party candidates and as such billing for the work will be wrong and no vehicle meant for the VIPs was hired, he maintained.

He further stated that other vehicles for conveyance of the participants at the rally were sponsored by the respective mandals and there is no information on preparation of video documentary of the rally.

There is no doubt that the whole exercise was a scheme by Chaoba to siphon the money for himself, Laba charged.

Laba further brought up another accusation against Chaoba citing a report that one of the vice-presidents of the party Hankhanpa was suspended as he had promised Rs three lakh for permission to join the party but could hand over only Rs one lakh.

Chaoba also suspended four important members of the party for celebrating the removal of Sekharjit after falsely accusing them of involving in anti-party activities.