Manipur high court repeal detention order of journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem 

Kishorchandra Wangkhem.

New Delhi: The Manipur high court, on Monday, has ordered the cancelation of detention of journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem, who was booked for sedition under the draconian National Security Act for allegedly making derogatory comments against the Bharatiya Janata Party government and for using abusive words against state chief minister N Biren Singh. Wangkhem has already spent 130 days in prison.

The order by Justice LS Jamir reads: “Having come to the conclusion that non-furnishing of the pictures with captions alleged to have been posted on his Facebook wall … and the compact disc containing the four video clips has prevented the petitioner from making an effective representation, thereby vitiating the detention order dated 27.11.2018, we are of the considered opinion that it would not be necessary to address the other grounds taken by the petitioner against the detention order dated 27.11.2018.”

A division bench of Justice LS Jamir and Justice Kh Nobin has ordered that Wangkhem be “set at liberty forthwith unless he is not wanted in other cases”.

The detention order against Wangkhem was passed by the Imphal West DM for non-furnishing of the pictures with captions that allegedly have been posted on the Wangkhem’s Facebook wall and the compact disc containing four video clips.

Kishorchandra Wangkhem’s arrest was decried by rights activists and opposition politicians alike. In January, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had promised all possible support to Wangkhem.

In March, Wangkhem’s wife, Elangbam Ranjita, had told the media that she was trying all legal methods to see her husband released. She had then said: “We want to fight it out legally. We will not resort to any backdoor method. When he was arrested earlier in August 2018, the bail granted was on medical grounds and we did not fight it out legally because we were misguided. And because of that, the tag of ‘repeat offender’ is hounding him.”

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