Thrasher suspended, bodies demand service termination
Source: Chronicle News Service / NNN

Imphal, September 03 2021: An Imphal East District Police commando constable identified as Collin Kshetrimayum has been suspended from service in connection with the assault on one Dr K Soreingam at Luwangshangbam on Thursday night.

In an order issued Friday, SP Imphal East N Herojit Meetei said that Collin has been suspended under the Assam Police Manual Rule No 66 Part-Ill for his involvement in the case.

During the suspension period, his headquarters will be Reserve Line, Porompat, it added.

In another order, the SP directed removal of VDF member A Bouchard, another accused in the case, from Imphal East commando unit and attached to Reserve Line, Porompat.

Dr Soreingam, an assistant professor of JNIMS, was reportedly assaulted on his way back home after picking up his wife Dr Lumthing RV, also a doctor of CMC hospital.

They were stopped in front of CM residence by some CDO personnel and abused him even after showing his ID and proving himself as a doctor.

The doctor's assault, meanwhile, has triggered vehement condemnations from different quarters with many demanding termination of service of the perpetrators.

Condemning the assault, Indian Medical Association (IMA) Manipur State Branch urged CM N Biren to terminate service of the two personnel involved in the incident.

It said: "the police personnel involved in this heinous act are not fit to serve the people and should be terminated within three days failing which IMA will launch state-wide protest" .

The IMA informed that the two personnel even after identifying the doctor with his ID abused him in front of his wife and hit him with the service rifle.

Teachers' Association JNIMS said: "What traumatised most is that even after showing his service ID, he was hit by his service rifle on his head and also attempt on his life was made by loading the rifle.

This was in addition to the verbal and physical assaults," said the Association in release.

Meanwhile, Catholic Medical Centre (CMC) Hospital informed Dr Soreingam came to pick his wife Dr Lumthing who left after conducting an emergency operation at the hospital.

The management authority of the hospital urged authorities concerned to initiate appropriate action against those involved.

While strongly condemning assault of Dr Soreingam in the presence of his wife Dr Lumthing RV (gynaecologist), Imphal Obstetrics & Gynaecological Society said it is a matter of utmost shame that two innocent frontline healthcare workers were attacked in such a vicious manner.

The brash callousness exhibited towards the doctors is not just a dismissible misdemeanour but an unforgivable act of transgression, it said and appealed to authorities concerned to initiate stringent punishment against the perpetrators so as to ensure such incidents never recur.

All Tribal Students' Union, Manipur (ATSUM) said that it was "very much shocked" on learning that Dr K Soreingam was assaulted by police commando personnel at Luwangsangbam near the chief minister s residence on September 2 night while he was returning home along with his wife Dr K Lumthing.

In a statement, ATSUM said, "Even doctors on duty are not spared, just imagine what will happen to innocent civilians", and opined that many such cases might gone unreported.

While strongly condemning the "high handedness of the terrorist security personnel" on duty, ATSUM demanded all those involved be strictly disciplined and be given appropriate punishment as per law of the land.

"We are neither in the Tatmadaw regime of Myanmar nor in the Taliban regime of Afghanistan.

We respect the night curfew but curfew cannot stop people who are in medical emergencies", ATSUM said and demanded the Home department to instruct all its officers to educate their security personnel on how their "boys" should respect and behave with the civilians.

ATSUM further said that the officers should also make their staff understand that their sleepless night duty on the road is for the safe passage and security of the civilians on the road with emergencies in the middle of the night and not to terrorise the civilians.

All Manipur Tribal Union (AMTU), meanwhile, said the assault, is an affront to Prevention of Atrocities Against Scheduled Tribe Act No 33 of 1989.Tangkhul Katamnao Saklong (TKS), Tangkhul Naga Long (TNL), Tangkhul Mayar Ngala Long (TMNL), Tangkhul Katamnao Saklong (TKS), Thawaijaio Hungpung Young Students' Organisation (THYSO), All Naga Doctors' Forum, Manipur (ANDFM) and All Naga Students' Association, Manipur (ANSAM) also strongly condemned the assault on Dr K Soreingam and demanded stringent action against the police personnel involved in the crime.

"We support and stand by the demand of the Indian Medical Association, Manipur State Branch, for termination of the police personnel responsible for the barbaric act within three days," TNL vice president Tuisem Kamkara said in the statement, urging the authorities concerned to initiate immediate actions against the erring cops.

He said that such heinous acts of the so-called people's protectors not only defiled the image of Manipur State Police but also triggered a sense of insecurity among the public, particularly in a time when the entire state is gripped by Covid-19 outbreak.

"It's clear that those police personnel who committed tne inhuman crime are sadly unaware of the services rendered by medical doctors in fighting the pandemic," Kamkara said.

Venting a similar outrage on the incident, TMNL president Somatai Machinao said if a man of his (Dr Sareingam) stature, serving the state from a field wherein he risks his own life every day for others is treated in such a demeaning manner, the horror of how ordinary citizens of the state would be treated could only be imagined.

Similarly, ANDFM, while writing to the chief minister on Friday, has demanded that disciplinary action be taken up against those Manipur police personnel involved in the incident within 48 hours, failing which it "may be compelled to launch different forms of protest" .

ANSAM asserted that police atrocity against civilians in this modern era is highly unacceptable.

"It reflects the image of the entire state," it said and conveyed sympathy and solidarity with Dr Soreingam and family to sail through and overcome all these traumas.

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