IMPHAL, Feb 11: Assam Rifles strongly rebutts the news published in the newspaper regarding the unfortunate accident which occured in front of Lilong post, resulting in the death of Mrs Shaheda Bibi of Sangaiyumpham Thoubal. The news report gives a misleading and incorrect picture of the event and no effort was made to bring out the correct side of the story. This has led to unnecessary criticism and vilification of the Assam Rifles personnel.
Following are the true facts which have not been correctly reported. Firstly, the AR water truck was moving from Canchipur towards Lilong & turning right into the Lilong post at a slow speed. The autorickshaw was moving from Thoubal towards Implia! i.e towards the opposite direction so there was no question of the water truck overtaking the three wheeler and striking it from behind as reported.
Further, the autorickshaw was overloaded with seven people and was overspeeding. In an apparent attempt to avoid collision with the water truck it applied hard brakes which led to its overturning resulting the deceased being thrown out of the autorickshaw and is likely to have fallen under the rear wheel of water tanker. There was no collision between the two vehicles as alleged.
The allegation that the water tanker fled inside the post is totally false. The report that the vehicle was washed by AR personnel to hide evidence is also false and baseless as the police station is just adjacent to the AR post and the police arrived within minutes at this accident site, Assam Rifles personnel are fully assisting the police in conduct of a fair investigation.
Grave factual errors have been published by the paper in reporting twice in the same news story that two women were killed in the accident, whereas only one woman succumbed to her injuries and four other injured have been treated at hospital and discharged.
