IMPHAL, April 19: A 35-year-old woman was seriously injured when a masked youth who secretly entered her house during the night and attacked her at Bishnupur Ward No. 4 om April 16.
The housewife has been identified as Khomdram Thoibi, 35, wife of Kh Dhananjoy, resident of Bishnupur Ward No. 4 and the attacker as Yumlembam Rishikumar alias Abocha, 24, son of (L) Tejkumar of Bishnupur Ward No. 8.
Thoibi is now undergoing medical treatment at Shija Hospitals and recieved several stitches on both her ears while her left eardrum is also injured in the attack.
Sources said on the night of April 16 at around 8 pm, Tejkumar secretly entered the house of Thoibi while her husband was in a nearby police station along with some of his neighbours to negotiate the police officials on the release of a local boy picked up by the police on the charges of drinking.
Dhananjoy told reporters, the night was completely dark as there was no electricity, but Thoibi lit up a lantern inside her bedroom. To her surprise, she saw an unidentified masked man standing in a dark corner of the room and suddenly she woke up frightened. However, the man started beating her up with a club without saying a word. Thoibi defended herself for some time and somehow fled from the house and alerted her neighbours, Dhnanjoy said.
Hearing the shouts of Thoibi, neighbours came rushing to her house and surrounded it and caught hold of Tejkumar who was hiding inside the house holding a knife, a rope and the stick. Tejkumar was severely thrashed by the neighbours and later handed over to Bishnupur police station, he added.
The motive behind the attack was not clear.
A public meeting was convened at Bishnupur Bazaar in connection with the incident on Thursday during which the attack on Thoibi was strongly condemned.
The meeting was participated by various civil society organizations including local Meira Paibis. They demanded life sentence for the accused Tejkumar and expressed apprehensions that he might have involved in different crimes which were committed by unknown people in the surrounding area earlier.
The public also decided that they would never allow the accused to live further in the locality.