Friday, April 27, 2012

Justice for Loitam Richard echoes among netizens

Imphal, April 27: Loitam Richard, aged 19 from Manipur who was studying Architecture Engineering at the Acharya NRV School of Architecture in Bangalore was allegedly beaten to death by senior hostelmates when he switched the channel of the TV while watching an IPL match on the night of April 18 in his hostel. 

Sources revealed that Richard had a tiff with his classmate and some seniors beat him up severely. His head was reportedly smashed against the steel frames of a window. The deformed window frame tells about the horrific scene of the last moments Richard went through before his death.

With people from different sections deploring the incident and demanding justice, the echo of Justice for Loitam Richard has spread like a massive wildfire among the netizens all over the world. Peoples from different walk of life who heard about the incident and the report of the post mortem which stated the reason of death was due to a minor road accident occurred some days back have come in huge in support for the cause.

Justice for Loitam Richard is an open facebook group which spreads awareness to the public about the incident which happened on that night as well as demands justice into the incident by arresting the culprits and awarding befitting punishment to them. The group was created on the evening of Sunday, April 22. By and by the group is expanding at a fast rate with 74,563 members and counting just within six days of its existence. Moreover there is also a wave from many facebook users which urged all those who support the cause to change their profile picture with a picture which have two photos of Loitam Richard and a message that reads “Loitam Richardki Achumba Wayel Fanghallu”, “Justice for Loitam Richard”. Within days, tens of thousands of facebook users have changed their profile picture with the picture as a token of solidarity to the cause.

On the other hand, the Home Minister of Manipur had also written a letter to his counterpart of Karnataka government to look into the matter and provide justice to Loitam Richard. Many are also talking the idea of transferring the case and its investigation to the CBI for a non biased justice to the ill fated Manipuri. Meanwhile, the Justice for Loitam Richard group is organising a mass demonstration in Bangalore, Imphal, Delhi, Pune, Gwalior and other major cities of India on  Sunday, April 29 at 4 pm. The main demonstration will be held at Town Hall, Bangalore from 4pm-6pm. Manipur Students' Association Delhi (MSAD) is also organising protest at Jantar Mantar from 2pm to 6pm and Candle March at India Gate from 7pm - 8pm. While the demonstration in Pune will be held at Blue Nile, Bund Garden Road, Opposite Poona Club at 5.30 pm. The Peoples’ Solidarity Concern, Bangalore, students from North East India and various other NGOs are joining hand in organising the mass demonstration. Unconfirmed report stated that Naga unions in the city will also be participating in the demonstration. 

Mention may be made here that Police investigation revealed possible occurrence of confrontation which could have led to the deceased succumbing to his injuries on the same night itself. There is strong evidence that the deceased suffered repeated blows on the head and face during the confrontation with his hostel inmates. Images of the deceased Richard following the confrontation indicate an incident of extreme violence leading to massive bleeding.

Preliminary post mortem report stated that his face was disfigured and discoloured, both eyes blackened. Diffused blood extravasations were also present over frontal and occipital region and also showed patchy subarachnoid hemorrhage at places over both cerebral hemispheres. Besides his chest wall, ribs, and cartilage walls were deviated and showed blood extravasations.His abdomen wall was distended and lacerations were present over the left upper lip, left forehead and left eyebrow. Multiple abrasions of varying sizes were also present over the back of right hand, second web space of index and middle finger and one third of the back of right forearm. Contusions were also present over inner aspect of the right thigh in its upper one third inner aspect of the left thigh at its middle one third. Expressing suspicion of covering up the incident and alleging that the dead body was taken out of the crime scene before the arrival of the police, parents of Richard had demanded to hand over the case to CBI or any other neutral investigating agency. 


(Hueiyen Lanpao)

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