IMPHAL, December 20: The All India Tribal Students’ Association, AITSA and the Mongoloid Peoples Forum, MPF Delhi have expressed concerned over the manner in which social activist Irom Sharmilla Chanu has been dragged into legal proceeding by the Delhi police.
A joint statement of the two body said, “The ordeal, she had been undergoing through, in the last almost seven years of her trial in the Delhi Court, for committing an alleged bail able and compoundable offence U/S 309 IPC, that attracts a maximum punishment of one year, if convicted, can be reconsidered by the Delhi Police in view of her pitiable present condition.”
The Delhi police accused her of “Knowingly attempting to commit suicide by refusing to take medical check-up”, when she sat on a fast unto death dharna at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi from October 4, 2006 at about 8 pm to 11.30 pm of October 6, 2006, demanding the withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, AFSPA, said the statement.
The lady, who came to Delhi with the hope of getting justice, was treated in a manner that she would have never expected, and is now on bail, but kept under house arrest by the state government, the statement continued.
However, she has continued with her non-violent struggle for over 12 years, surviving by feeding through a nasal tube, said the statement.
AITSA /MPF appeal to the Delhi Police to kindly review the circumstances, under which the FIR was lodged against Irom Sharmilla, and withdraw the case from the court, in view of the present circumstances and the ordeal she had been undergoing even in her remote home town of Manipur, being unmarried women of over 40 years of age, she deserved to be treated with humanity and compassion.
And moreover, it also appears that, neither she is wholeheartedly represented in the court nor is she able to travel to Delhi from Manipur in her present condition, which will further result in delaying the process of the trial, if the case is not withdrawn, said the statement.