Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, November 22, 2009:
Manoharmayum Ibotombi Sharma, a senior advocate of Gauhati High Court, Imphal Bench who was abducted on October 25, was released in Guwahati in Assam today.
He arrived at Imphal by an Indigo flight today.
Police has expressed some foul-play on his return after 27 days of missing.
Lawyers and locals of the Nagamapal Singjubung Leirak, where the senior advocate hails from, have been staged sit-in-demonstrations demanding unconditional release of the advocate assuming that he was taken into captivity by KCP (Wanglen Khuman) on ransom demand.
Family members who were clueless on who his failure to return home had estimated that he could have been abducted by KCP (Wanglen Khuman) group who served him a monetary demand around a year and six months back.
Ibotombi, who reached Imphal today, told where he was kept but refused to disclosed the group who taken him into custody.
He was released before transporting to Singapore in response to protest demonstration against his abduction in Imphal.
Family members said that he was missing along with his vehicle which he had gone out saying that he was going to repair the car.
Police also registered a case of kidnapping but could not find out which groups taken him captivity.
Four persons whisked him from Chingmeirong area Imphal along the NH-39 on the morning of October 25 and took him to Gauhati, Assam, the advocate said.
The kidnappers carried him into the forests of Assam and West Bengal where camps of other rebels operating in the areas.
They also tried to shift him to Gangtok for further proceeding to Singapore, he revealed.
Ibotombi said he was taken into captivity of a group operating in north eastern region on the alleged charged of taking bribe from the Army in fighting cases in the court against the arrested cadres of the group.
They pressed him to fight cases pending in the court with the arrested cadres of the group in which he refused to agree.
Considering protest demonstrations carried out here in Imphal by the locals and lawyers demanding his safe release, he was freed after shifting him to Guwahati, Ibotombi added.