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| Women block Yairipok-Andro road at Uchol Mayai Leikai in Imphal on Monday. Picture by Eastern Projections |
Imphal, Nov. 16: Villagers of Yairipok area in Imphal East staged a road blockade today to protest against the abduction of a panchayat member’s husband. They threatened to intensify their agitation if the hostage was not released safely.
The residents of Uchol Mayai Leikai and surrounding villages turned up in large numbers and blocked the Yairipok-Andro road since 5am by standing across it and burning wood on it. The roadblock continued till late in the afternoon.
The villagers said some persons, who identified themselves as cadres of the United Peoples Party of Kangleipak, had come to the house of Ch. Radhe Devi, a member of Andro Nagar panchayat in Imphal East, on the night of November 11.
The militants asked for her but when they found that she was not home, they took away her husband, Ch. Tombi Singh, 66, from their residence in Uchol Mayai Leikai under Yairipok police station.
Radhe Devi later said some persons had called up and claimed to have abducted her husband.
The abductors said that the hostage would be freed only after the Andro Nagar panchayat handed over Rs 15 lakh, allegedly misused by the local body.
The outfit alleged that the panchayat had misappropriated the sum from the funds provided for the development of the areas covered by the panchayat.
The group also told Radhe Devi and some other members of the panchayat that it tried to meet the chairperson of the panchayat, Leirangton Devi, to discuss the alleged misappropriation of funds. However, the chairperson had gone into hiding.
The militant group had set today as the deadline for the nagar panchayat to hand over the sum.
“The chairperson should come forward to clarify things so that my husband can be released. My husband is innocent. He should be released without any harm,” Radhe Devi said.
She, however, did comment on the alleged misappropriation of fund.
The United Peoples Party of Kangleipak had also abducted two senior engineers of the electricity department, executive engineer Thangjam Tomalchand and assistant engineer Leitanthem Mangi, on November 6. They are yet to be traced.
The group had reportedly told the families of the engineers that they were abducted as part of an investigation into an alleged Rs 15 crore scandal in the power department.
