Bail plea rejected
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 01 2022: The Chief Judicial Magistrate Imphal West has rejected the bail application of retired Head Draughtsman and retired Supervisor Kanango of the Revenue Department who were accused of manipulating the original map and boundary of Waithou Hill Range and remanded them to judicial custody till June 15 .

Accused Soibam Luke Singh (74) of Singjamei Wangma Bheigyabati Leikai and Okram Munal alias Maimu of Thoubal Kiyam Siphai Babu Bazar were produced before the Court by a team of Lamphel Police Station today and prayed for judicial custody remand while the defence counsels sought bail.

The IO of the case claimed that the map and original P-70 Sheet no 4 (1986-87 survey) of 17-Chaobok Revenue Village was manipulated and redrew the boundary of CS dag no 3126 extending towards the protected Waithou Hills region.

The IO further claimed that the area of CS dag no 3126 measuring 0.0906 hectare has been increased to 0.9639 hectare.

Continuing that the map manipulation took place during the tenure of the then Head Draughtsman Soibam Luke Singh and on the direction of Okram Munal, the IO continued that construction of pucca building is underway at CS dag no 3126 but the occupier Ashem Brajamani Singh is evading police arrest.

The IO argued that arresting Ashem Brajamani Singh and recording his statement is of utmost importance before releasing the two accused.

The defence counsel for Soibam Luke claimed that the accused is just a keeper of map and had no access to any of the dag chithas and as such any change made in the CS dag no 3126 has nothing to do with him.

The defence counsel then prayed for the release of Soibam Luke on bail, claiming that the accused is not well and the investigation is almost complete.

The defence counsel of Okram Munal also sought bail for his client, claiming that the prosecution has no concrete evidence to prove the accused involvement in the case and has no knowledge of the map manipulation.

The Court on perusal of the case record and after hearing the submission of defense counsels and APP rejected the bail application and sent the two accused to judicial custody till June 15 .

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