MLA Noorul fails to show up in court
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, October 19 2023:
In connection with an election petition filed by Kshetrigao AC ex-MLA N Indrajit against incumbent MLA Sheikh Noorul Hassan, the latter failed to show up to court to give his statement as defence witness on Tuesday.
As such, the advocate commissioner re-fixed the cross examination of the defence witness on Thursday.
According to the election petition filed by Indrajit against MLA Sheikh Noorul Hassan and seven others, MLA Noorul failed to provide statements of his three personal bank accounts and two joint accounts in his nomination paper for the state assembly election in 2022 .
He (Noorul) also hid details of the Scorpio vehicle in his name.
While Noorul stated that his wife is a government employee, he did not make it clear that she was a deputy director under the Assam Government.
Noorul also did not state how many times he had contested in the elections.
Thus, the petitioner urged the High Court of Manipur to invalidate Noorul's victory in the 12th state assembly election.
In connection with the election petition, the official witness cross examination began on October 9.On October 11, the advocate commissioner filed a report, following which the bench of the Manipur High Court Chief Justice instructed for completing the recording of the statements of the witnesses of the respondents from October 17 to 20 as per the request by the petitioner's counsel after collecting the petitioner's evidence.
However, MLA Sheikh Noorul Hassan, who is also respondent no 1, failed to show up to the court on Tuesday.
The MLA requested to the advocate commissioner to give some time so as to test for dengue and as such, the latter fixed the date on Wednesday.
The MLA again failed to show up and requested the court for another date instead.
When enquired by the petitioner's counsel, the MLA stated that he could not come to the court due to a broken leg.
The petitioner's counsel strongly rejected the MLA's response and urged the court for recording the statements of the defence witness.
Thus, the advocate general re-fixed the cross examination of defence witness including that of MLA Sheikh Noorul Hassan on Thursday.
Mention may be made here that the bank statement reports of the five bank accounts belonging to the MLA, along with reports from the Income Tax Department and the Motor Vehicle Department have already been submitted.