Candle Light March at DU demanding justice for Pravish Chanam
Source: NEFIS *
Imphal, March 19 2018:
North-East Forum for International Solidarity (NEFIS) along with hundreds of students and concerned individuals and organizations today organized a Candle Light March titled 'North-East People's Lives Matter' at Arts Faculty, Delhi University demanding justice for Manipuri youth, Pravish Chanam.
NEFIS had earlier submitted a memorandum to Union Minister of Home Affairs, Shri Rajnath Singh regarding the lack of investigation into his death in Noida, Uttar Pradesh under suspicious circumstances.
Pravish Chanam, it should be known, had come to Delhi on a visit and had been residing in Safdarjung, Delhi with his friends.
On 8th September 2017, he went to Knowledge Park in Noida to attend a music concert with his friends and went missing after the concert, to be later found dead.
The Noida Police had been making investigation into the circumstances which led to his death.
But the shoddy inquiry conducted by the police as well as the subsequent details of the case strongly pointed towards the dubious role of police personnel themselves in the case.
Consequently, the victim's family demanded an inquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation into the case.
Since, the matter fell under the authority of UP Govt, the deceased's family requested the Manipur Govt to ask UP Chief Minister to transfer the case to CBI.
It should be known that despite UP Govt assuring the Manipur Govt that the case would be transferred to the CBI, no further steps have been taken in this direction.
This amounts to a blatant attempt to shield the culprits by allowing them ample time to destroy evidence which may implicate them in future.
This wilful negligence is also a clear indication of the states' and central government's apathy towards North-East people.
Moreover, Pravish's incident is not the last crime against North-East people.
The gathering also reflected that it was high time that they stood against racism and pledged to oppose incidents of racism against the people from North-East.
NEFIS has warned of an intensification of people's struggle, if justice is not speedily ensured to the deceased.
It has also demanded that adequate and immediate steps should be taken to pre-empt incidents of racism against people from North-East.
* The sender of this news can be contacted at nefis(DOT)delhi(AT)gmail(DOT)com .