IMPHAL, June 12: The Chief Minister of Karnataka told the student representatives that the Karnataka government has not received any single note from the State government on the alleged murder case of Richard Loitam. Infact, the Karnataka CM himself intimidated the Manipur Chief Minister on the case at a meet in Delhi.
This was stated by the student representatives during a press conference held today at MSF office after their arrival from Bangalore.
The student bodies that had visited Karnataka included representatives of AMSU, MSF, DESAM, KSA, SWAK and SUK.
After returning from Banglore yesterday, the student bodies held a press conference today at MSF office and told media persons that the objective of the six days visit was to find out the real progress of the case.
Spokesperson of the student body said that the Karnataka Chief Minister had said that by the time his government had recieved reports about the student representatives visitting Karnataka, his government had already considered transferring the Richard case to the CID.
Speaking to media persons, the spokesperson said that after their landing at Bangalore on June 5, the team met with the Manipur Meitei Association, Bangalore, Bangalore Manipur Students’ Associaition, Committee on Justice for Richard and the North East Forum and culled information on the case.
He continued that June 6, the student team met with the Karnataka CM.
During the meeting, the Karnataka CM had told them that more than 80perent of the total students from Manipur in Karnataka are drug users.
He further said that the Karnataka CM had also informed that his government had not recieved a single inititiative from the Manipur political parties on the case.
The student team had also met with the karnataka DGP, Lalrokhuma Pachou along with the Addl DGP (LO) Bippin Gopal Krishna and Addl DGP (crime) AM Prasad.
During the meeting, the team said they found out that the police were more interested in registering Richard’s death as a result of an accident, which occurred on April 15 some days before Richard was found dead.
The spokesperson also said that the team confronted the Karnataka police that they had handed over the case to the CID only after a strong protest back home in Manipur spearheaded by the student bodies and that would they further hand over the case to the CBI if the students continued with further agitation.
The police replied that the student body should file a petition to a court regarding the handing over of the case to the CBI.
The also assured all possible help to the student body regarding the case and also assured especial care for the NE students in Karnataka.
