EEVFAM mourns for Mukul Sinha
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, May 15 2014 :
Scientist and human rights activist Mukul Sinha,who was the counsel of NGOs fighting for the fake encounter cases in Manipur, passed away on May 12 due to complications arising out of lung cancer from which he had been suffering since the past few months.
He was 63 .
Though of Bengali origins, Mukul Sinha was from Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.
He studied there and got into IIT Kanpur and finally did his doctorate in Physics.
He worked in the Physical Research Laboratories in Ahmedabad where he organised the workers, as a result of which he was illegally removed from his job.
During his time in the Physical Research Laboratories, a group had formed around him, including his wife Nirjhari, who were drawn to Marxism-Laninism as the only way to explain the reality that they saw around them.
It was due to the illegal dismissal that he had to go the labour and industrial courts.
It was also there that he saw the stark exploitation which the workers were being subjected to.
In the courts, Mukul Sinha met N..NPatel, a veteran trade union leader.
Both of them became lawyers working exclusively for the workers and the trade unions and also formed the Gujarat Federation of Trade Unions.
On January 4 2013, the Supreme Court appointed a 3-member penal headed by Justice Santosh Hegde, a retired judge of Supreme Court, to examine 6 cases with 7 victims of extrajudicial execution in Manipur following a Writ Petition (Criminal) Number 129 of 2012 filed by Extrajudicial Execution Victim Families Association, Manipur (EEVFAM) to investigate 1528 cases.
Mukul Sinha was the counsel for these 6 cases related to killing of Azad Khan, Khumbongmayum Orsonjit, NameirakpamGobin Meitei @ Tamo, NameirakpamNobo Meitei, Elangbam Kiranjit Singh, Chongtham Umakanta @ Munalton and Akoijam Priyobroto @ Bochou.
Members of EEVFAM have condoled the demise of Mukul Sinha.