Village chief slain, ex-MLA accused
Source: The Sangai Express / S Singlianmang Guite
Lamka, September 08 2012:
A politician in Manipur's Churachandpur district has been accused of murdering a village chief last night, reportedly in a row over land ownership.
Sixty-year-old Henkhothang Haokip, chief of S Nabil village in Thangching hill range in Henglep subdivision, reportedly received multiple gunshots on his abdomen and thigh at around 9pm in his village under the Moirang Police jurisdiction but located in Churachandpur district.
His eldest son Nehlenlal Haokip addressing the press here today alleged that former MLA Sehpu Haokip and two of his accomplices were behind the attack that claimed his father's life.
Lamkhomang Haokip and Thangkholal are the other two accomplices of Sehpu, he said.
The Kuki chief, according to his son, was urinating on the side walls of their bathroom when he was attacked.
Though he received multiple injuries, the chief reportedly managed to identify his assailants, whom he knew very well, to one of his sons and several villagers who immediately rushed to him on hearing the gunshots.
Nehlenlal Haokip told reporters that former MLA Sehpu Haokip had in 2010 forcibly took his father into his custody and made him sign on several blank papers at gun-point.
He later converted the signed papers into sale deeds for the S Nabil village by deceitfully convincing the subregistrar of Henglep sub-division.
As the chief's family contested Sehpu's claims of being the village chief thereafter, he began to threaten them with dire consequences.
Their tussle for chiefship has even landed them to the Gauhati High Court and the case is still pending.
Nehlenlal Haokip further claimed that the politician had in his quest to grab the village land had already killed his grand-mother Ajung in 2008 as well.
He had filed an FIR at the Lamka Police Station moments after his father succumbed to injuries at the Churachandpur district hospital but the case was referred to Moirang PS as it falls under their jurisdiction.
He had named Sehpu Haokip and two others as the accused in the FIR.
"I have already provided the names of the people who killed my father, and I will not stake claim of his dead body until that time the police apprehend all of them," he declared.
"Even if it means that his body will rot in the morgue, I don't mind as I am willing to sacrifice his body to end this act of madness be it in my family or that of others' .
Police sources said an autopsy has been conducted today on the body at RIMS in Imphal.
There are about 70 households in the village of S Nabil.