Abducted father-son duo slain
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, December 16 2011: The care-taker (chowkidar) of Irilbung water supply scheme and his son, who were reportedly abducted for ransom have been slain.

Bullet riddled bodies of Soram Ibomcha (60) and his 22-year old son Gitchandra alias Yaipu were recovered this morning from a hill range known as Keitanlok, near Lembakhul under Yairipok police station in Thoubal district.

The said site, however, falls under Imphal East district.

Both the victims, with fatal bullet wounds on the heads, had their hands tied and eyes blind-folded and their bodies placed on a single blanket.

Police reportedly recovered an empty case and a projectile of 9 mm ammunition from near the bodies, which have been brought to JNIMS morgue for necessary procedures.

It is informed that the father-son duo was whisked away from their living quarter by some armed persons who identified themselves as activists of KCP-MTF (Kesho Meitei) group on December 7 at around 9.30 pm.

Smoke billows from the pump-house set on fire by protestors

The father, whose native place is at Irilbung Kali, was the care-taker of PHED's Augmentation of Water Supply for Imphal City Phase-1, located at Awaching near Irilbung.

As news spread about the dead of Ibomcha and his son, infuriated locals of Irilbung blocked the ImphalYairipok road besides attacking the water supply scheme during which the water pump installed inside the filtration unit, power transformer and control panel were set on fire besides damaging the windows and other items.

Moments after the public berserk, teams of Imphal East district police arrived and dispersed the mob while personnel of fire service department doused the blaze.

While the situation at the water supply scheme located on the Baruni hill range was brought under control, police had to fire tear gas canisters to disperse another group of people who had been blocking the road from both ends of Irilbung bridge.

six protestors, including the deceased Yaipu's elder brother suffered minor injuries in the police crackdown.

While normal vehicular movement on the said route remained severely crippled as the protestors barricaded the road with tree-trunks and huge boulders, some other youths torched a pump-house near the Irilbung bridge.

In connection with the brutal murder of the father-son duo, an emergency public meeting attended by representatives of civil society organisations was held at Irilbung in the afternoon.

A delegation of the Joint Action Committee, formation of which was approved by the public meeting, handed over a copy of the meeting resolutions to the Chief Minister later in the evening.

With apparent reference to news report that a particular armed group had served monetary demand against Public health Engineering Department, the public meeting held the Department's Chief Engineer responsible for the murder of Ibomcha and yaipu.

They also demanding shifting of the Awaching water supply scheme with the contention that rather than benefit the local populace the project has claimed the lives of innocent persons.

The meeting also strongly condemned the double murder as an act of cowardice and took grim note of the fact that even the son was not spared.

Alleged lack of initiative by the police to rescue the abducted persons also came under sharp criticism at the meeting.

a large number of people from Irilbung area attempted to proceed towards Imphal to hand over the memorandum to the State authorities at dusk but were stopped by police at Kongba Lairenpat area, from where a JAC team were allowed to air their grievances to the CM.

It is informed that Yaipu's wife is in advance stage of pregnancy.